Why am I seeing ethnicity as Canadian?
Hi, I just wondered if anyone else has experienced this or if there may be some reasonable explanation or something that I'm missing. When researching some of my South Carolina ancestors, specifically Gaffney and Hawkins, I keep seeing their ethnicity listed as Canadian. I'm confused by this, as nothing I've ever found in any of my own research indicates a connection to Canada. These are people who were born and died in SC. Could this be a mistake?
Answers
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Natalie, Could you please give me a little more information so I can look at the record. I need a name or the ID from FamilySearch. This could be a mistake that can be corrected. Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Carol
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Thank you so much for your reply, Carol. I don't have a complete list of the names, unfortunately, as I've just been noticing this gradually, so I'll be sure to take better notes. But the records I've seen it with most recently are Mary Jane Gaffney Robison (L5DG-VCL) and Wylie Perry Hawkins (L5Z8-DXV).
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can you be a little more specific as to where you see the ethnicity as Canadian"?
for the people in question - where does FamilySearch Family Tree record them as being born?
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Hi Dennis, thanks for replying. These two were born in the Carolinas, as were their parents and grandparents. Going back further, I've never seen anything related to Canada. Wylie Perry Hawkins was born in Franklinton, NC and Mary Jane Gaffney Robison was born in Gaffney, SC.
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and where precisley are you seeing it state Ethniciity?
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I am also seeing the same thing Dennis Yancey sees. Where are you seeing the Ethnicity as Canadian? I can't find it stated in their records. Any help would be appreciated.
Carol
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Unfortunately I can't attach the screenshots here (unless there's some way I'm not aware of), but for both of them it's South Carolina Deaths 1915-1965.
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Also, thank you both so much, I'm sorry for not being more specific with my original question. I didn't realize you could help me this much, so I was really just making a general inquiry as to whether or not this was a common sort of mistake. I really appreciate your time.
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OK you are talking about some source record - and NOT the family in FamilySearch Family Tree
we were all assuming you were talking about the Family Record in Family Tree
why some source record shows them as Canadian is a different thing.
can you copy and paste just the URL? (the web browser address?)
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and does it actually say "canadian" (fully spelled out)
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Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know if it was something in the SC record or something that could've been entered that way on the FamilySearch end. It makes more sense to me now that it's something with SC. I'll try to attach the URLs here:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N9JK-CLG
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N96V-1QV
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Yes it does, and I learned something new today because I didn't realize Canadian could be classified as an ethnicity, I always thought of it strictly as a nationality.
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seems to be some indexing error
I dont see ethnicity recorded on the original document.
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I would report this issue on the feedback option
and see what they report back
seems to be an indexing error
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Okay I'll do that, thank you so much for your input. And you're right, it doesn't say anything like that on the original document -- it's as though this ethnicity was added to multiple people within the SC death registry for that timeframe. I need to go back and find more names now, because there were others.
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And maybe, ultimately, it doesn't matter all that much other than being somewhat confusing. But I guess I was also curious as to whether there may be something they knew that I didn't haha. Thanks again.
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Canadian is NOT an ethnicity - which is why this was even more confusing.
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That's what I thought, I've never heard this before. But I started looking into it today and there are those that say it is. So I'm not sure if it comes down to opinion or fact, but I don't know what to think now.😕
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it just depends on your definition of Ethnicity
in a very vague sense - yes the "people of Canada" could be considered a common group - having the nation of Canada as their commonality. But use of the term in that sense is pretty uncommon.
This is true of just about any of a million terms we could pick - where over the years definitions have evolved and people have not always used such terms consistently. [click expand post]
but in most biological, sociological, scientific discussions the ethnicity of the people of a nation would not be considered an ethnic group since they are eimply based on a geo-political boundary and have such a diverse population of many sub cultures and so often where you were precisely born (inside the boundaries of a country) does not, in itself, usually determine language, culture, religion, customs etc.
DEFINITION
An ethnic group or ethnicity is a named social category of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups such as a common set of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area. .
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That's a good explanation Dennis, makes sense. I didn't read too much about the argument some were making that it's an ethnicity, but maybe they were thinking more of indigenous people (like Native Americans).
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but thats my point - if they were talking about Indigenous people - then using the term ethnically Canadian is totally wrong - because there are so many other Canadians who are not indigenous.
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Hmm, maybe "Native Canadian" is a better term, and I think they use that too. I just came across this:
"In 2016, 2.1 million people, or 6.2% of the total Canadian population, reported Aboriginal ancestry (single or multiple response). Of the three main Aboriginal groups, First Nations (North American Indians) was the largest, with 1.5 million people. Within this group, Cree (356,660), Mi’kmaq (168,480) and Ojibway (125,725) were the most common ancestries. Métis ancestry was reported by 600,000 people, and Inuit ancestry was reported by 79,125."
By contrast, only about 1.6% of the U.S. population is Native American. The Canadian total population is obviously much smaller, but these are percentages of population. So there's a fairly sizable indigenous, native, aboriginal presence, whatever the correct term is. What any of this has to do with my ancestors, I have no idea lol! Probably nothing! But it's interesting nonetheless.
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Yeh - but they already have ethnic names - - INUIT, METIS and others
they existed even before Canada existed
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Yes that's true, so I guess "Native Canadian" would just be a general classification for any of those people, as we often use "Native American" when referring to Cherokee, Creek, Navajo, etc.
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Actually, the Canadian government has changed the "official" (and politically correct) name for these native people. For many years now, that term for those people is "First Nation". I've not ever heard the term "Native Canadian" used. That does not mean it isn't used, but I lived in various places across Canada for over 20 years (until around 1986) and never heard really that term used.
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In Canada, the First Nations (French: Premières Nations [pʁəmjɛʁ nɑsjɔ̃]) are the predominant indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic Circle. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit. The Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations primarily between First Nations people and Europeans.[2] There are 634[3] recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.[4]
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I just learned another new thing, thanks Jeff.
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Canadian history is so interesting -- hard to believe I've gone this long knowing so little about our awesome neighbors to the north. Not sure if these links will work, but the first is an old video I'd seen recently, shows what it was like for kids going to school during a winter in Ontario long ago. The second is one I found just now, with music from some of the First Nations.
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👍
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Canadienne refers to Indigenous people.
Jesuits in new France used code words of "domestic" and "adopted" to really mean slave. Slavery existed in Canada until 1834.
66% of all Canadian slaves were Indigenous.
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