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Old Posted Mar 24, 2018, 9:47 AM
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SignalHillHiker SignalHillHiker is online now
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sin Jaaawnz, Newf'nland
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I love these sorts of things.

Going through the 1891 Newfoundland census...

Population of St. John's, City only: 29,007
Population of St. John's District, smaller than current CMA: 36,027
Born in Newfoundland: 34,075

The only other countries we recorded were England, Ireland, Scotland, British Colonies (which includes fellow Dominions such as Canada), and Foreign Countries (literally the rest of the world ).

Beyond that, trying to compare to the Canadian Census of 1931, the closest we have is the Newfoundland Census of 1935.

At that time...

Population of the City of St. John's: 39,886
Population of Newfoundland and her Dependencies (Labrador): 289,516
Born in Newfoundland and her Dependencies: 285,407
Born in England: 571
Born in Scotland: 317
Born in Ireland: 135
Born in Wales: 17
Born in Lesser British Isles: 4
Born in British Possessions: 1,447
(For some reason this is where Canada is counted, which is 1,420 of that total).

And the most delightful one of all:
Born at Sea: 17

Foreign Born: 1,601
And within that category:
United States: 1,032 (anecdotally, much of this would've been families from the Boston area with existing connections to Newfoundland; there was a lot of back and forth between the two at that time)
China: 136
Syria: 81 (again, anecdotally, but today they'd consider their heritage Lebanese and are one of the most well-known, established, "foundational" non-British groups. Even our provincial NDP leader is Lebanese in origin)
France: 61
Poland: 56
St-Pierre et Miquelon (France): 55
Russia: 42
Germany: 32
Others: 106

It's interesting how low the numbers can be compared to their influence. I suppose it has to do with the huge families back then? So you have St. John's as a city of about 40K and 81 people born in Syria/Lebanon. We had huge families then - both my parents have 13 siblings, my maternal grandfather had 22. 5-6 kids would've been a small family so that 81 actually born overseas probably represents several hundred people born in Newfoundland who consciously identify with their Syrian/Lebanese heritage. And even that seems low given their influence - especially commercially.
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Last edited by SignalHillHiker; Mar 24, 2018 at 12:23 PM.
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