Solano County, California Ancestry

[kwabbit]

I was looking at ancestry via Redistricter and Solano County stood out for having extremely high "other" ancestry. Yolo and Napa Counties also have unusually high "other" numbers too. I looked at the census website and the ACS has it as "European". This is for single ancestry numbers, multiple ancestry numbers have European as minimal.

Is there anything real to this, where the area has an uncommon European ancestry? Or is it just a data error or quirk?

[mileslunn]

I was looking at ancestry via Redistricter and Solano County stood out for having extremely high "other" ancestry. Yolo and Napa Counties also have unusually high "other" numbers too. I looked at the census website and the ACS has it as "European". This is for single ancestry numbers, multiple ancestry numbers have European as minimal.

Is there anything real to this, where the area has an uncommon European ancestry? Or is it just a data error or quirk?

Not that I can think of.  Irish, Italian, German, English would probably be main ones, but may have some Portuguese although I think that is more inland.  They do have a sizeable Jewish community around 5% so some there might identify as other never mind Jewish community tends to come from a variety of countries although mostly Eastern European as vast majority in US are Ashkenazi Jews.  But otherwise cannot think why.

[kwabbit]

I was looking at ancestry via Redistricter and Solano County stood out for having extremely high "other" ancestry. Yolo and Napa Counties also have unusually high "other" numbers too. I looked at the census website and the ACS has it as "European". This is for single ancestry numbers, multiple ancestry numbers have European as minimal.

Is there anything real to this, where the area has an uncommon European ancestry? Or is it just a data error or quirk?

Not that I can think of.  Irish, Italian, German, English would probably be main ones, but may have some Portuguese although I think that is more inland.  They do have a sizeable Jewish community around 5% so some there might identify as other never mind Jewish community tends to come from a variety of countries although mostly Eastern European as vast majority in US are Ashkenazi Jews.  But otherwise cannot think why.

High Jewish ancestry usually results in higher Other, but mainly it goes into Eastern European or a specific group i.e Iranian Jews in Great Neck or Beverly Hills. So it's not Jewish. All of the other ancestries you mentioned were listed. I think somehow the form was botched and large numbers selected European without choosing a sub-ancestry.

[Sol]

Is it possibly Azoreans? I know there's a decent sized community in the Valley and maybe they haven't self-IDed as Portuguese for whatever reason.

[kwabbit]

Is it possibly Azoreans? I know there's a decent sized community in the Valley and maybe they haven't self-IDed as Portuguese for whatever reason.

That could possibly be it, as Azorean is not a separate option on the ACS, but IIRC most Portuguese in the US are Azorean and "other" does not predominate in other parts of the US with significant Portuguese ancestry like RI/Bristol County or the Southern Central Valley.

It's clear from the ancestry map why so many CV Congressmen are Portuguese. I've before wondered why there were so many, but it is the leading White ancestry and the local GOP is built more established Portuguese while the local Dems are built around farm working Latinos.

[kwabbit]

The same phenomenon occurs in Travis County, Texas, mostly in the Whiter western half, where it's less likely to be from Latinos choosing White other or something like that. ACS also has a similar result.

[Schiff for Senate]

Ik for a fact that Yuba County, at least, has a not-insignificant population of Punjabi-Mexicans - iirc the descendants of Mexican women who bore children with Punjabi men.

EDIT: Idk if this is still relevant, but I confused Yolo with Yuba - it's Yuba County/City that has Punjabi Americans, not Yolo County.

[VPH]

Ik for a fact that Yolo County, at least, has a not-insignificant population of Punjabi-Mexicans - iirc the descendants of Mexican women who bore children with Punjabi men.

That's one of the coolest uniquely American ethnic groups