American Polonia. Wisconsin - the most Polish state?

good question,for what?

I once found an interesting demographic map of the United States here
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Census-2 000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg/2000px-Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg.png

The only county with a Polish majority back in 2000 was Luzerne county in Pennsylvania.

Whoops, I made a mistake there. Here's the correct link and Luzerne county in Pennsylvania has the most Polish ancestry as of 2000.

I know this is an old thread however....

I live in Wisconsin, actually directly between Madison and Milwaukee. My Great Great Grandparents moved to Chicago from Poland, then my Great Grandparents moved to Wisconsin...

Where are all of these Polish stores/bars? I've never heard of any.

I also have to admit that I am personally jealous of all of you on here who can speak polish - I being the great grandson only know the few swear words she said while I was growing up.

P.S. I'm glad I found this forum - two hours later and I'm still finding cool & interesting stuff! :D

Welcome buddy

LOL, there are more than two Polish stores in Wisconsin.
The Catholic Church in Wisconsin Dells has a mass in Polish on the first sunday of everymonth. Most of the people who attend are native Polish born. The catholic school also has a weekly school for children in Polish.

There is still a Polish language newspaper Published in Stevens Point:

gwiazdapolarna.com

Nothing to jealous about, it's an annoyingly sounding language :-)

Not bad, only two grammatical errors.

I could be moving to Wis or Illin from Ontario. Polish as well, as you would. What are the best health insurance companies down there? Is any health care free? Also, if I buy 2-3 acres, what are the laws to keep a cow?

Heath care is free if you go to the emergency room and you don't pay your bill.

Health insurance is a mess right now because of the so-call Affordable Care Act and the fact that the President is making it a moving target and nobody can figure out what is coming next.

Most rural areas where you would get 2-3 acres are zoned for ag use so keeping a cow would be no problem. Many urban areas allow you to keep chickens but not roosters. Just have to check the local zoning laws regarding any type of livestock BEFORE you buy.

many Poles or factions do not put this on their official census form

The Wisconsin Territory in the mid to latter 19th Century was primarily settled by Germans, Norwegians and Poles. In fact, the State Constitution had 4 original language versions: English, German, Norwegian and Polish. I doubt that many Poles immigrate to Wisconsin today but many Wisconsinites claim descent from one of these 4 ethnic groups.

Wisconsin is very much Polish. I was born in Stevens Point and when I was a kid you could see the Polish influence everywhere. Mass was half English and half Polish. Weddings everywhere had a polka band, none of the DJ crap you see today. And the bands sung half the music in Polish as well. Hwy 66 out of Point is the American Polish highway of Wisconsin. Carol Wotya (Pope John Paul II) visited Rosholt, just outside of Point in the 70's. Today, if I wear my Polish tshirts around central Wisconsin, I still get people saying "Jak Sie Mascz" to me....Dubja, Dubja I say!

The Point is (no pun intended), what regions still carry the old Polish traditions. People from Poland do not recognize the Polish American culture. It's actually 2 different cultures. The old school culture centers around Polka music, church picnics, Polish food Golambki packi czarnia, some polish traditions passed through the family, the rural lifestyle.The new age Polish people, are usually urban or big city, focus on the arts "Chopin, Górecki etc", a Polish event is a study of Polish architecture, and Polish immigrants usually don't want to be seen with the Old school Polish Americans. Many new age Polish people or who have recently immigrated from Poland see Polka music as hillbilly music and laugh at it. Many new age Polish people (immigrants of today) don't want to be associated as Polish, in the American sense.

While Polish immigrants of years ago where only committed to the Polish traditions of the old country and only spent money at Polish businesses, only conversed with fellow Poles, etc.

So, does an area like Chicago have more people with Polish blood? My guess would be so. But I would guess that Wisconsin has more people of Polish ancestry who still carry the Polish traditions and try to keep their Polish roots alive, even if it's saying "Jak Sie Masz". To this day, Polish weddings still have Polish singing Polka bands in the central Wisconsin region. You still have Pulaski Polka days, Milwaukee Polish fest, Event in Bevent, and Polkas on WDEZ Wausau every Sunday morning with the first hour of Polka music dedicated to Polish only. People here still eat Czarnina, Poonchkey, Golumbki, etc. Is it disappearing yes, but you will still see more young people at a Polish picnic dancing a Polka then a German, or Czech picnic dancing their style of Polka.

On a side note: Wisconsin's Polish differs from other regions in the country. Central Wisconsin is made up of Kashubian Poles. Which are Poles from Gdansk or Northern Poland. The Polish that many spoke years ago in central WI could not be understood by other Poles. My grandparents always called the Kasubian language "high Polish" and everything else was "low Polish" That's how those old people were HA! That is why "Packi" is pronounced "Poonchkey". Other regions where Kashubians settled were Buffalo NY, and Winona MN.

I love being Polish, what else can I say.

Nothing wrong with that :)

Merged: American cities with the largest Polish population

The following American cities and municipalities have the largest Polish populations:
New York City, New York - 213,447 (2.7%).[1]
Chicago, Illinois - 210,421 (7.3%).[2]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 65,508 (4.3%).[3]
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - 57,485 (9.6%).[4]
Los Angeles, California - 56,670 (1.5%).[5]
Cheektowaga (town), New York - 37,560 (39.9%).[6]
Buffalo, New York - 34,254 (11.7%).[7]
Phoenix, Arizona - 32,050 (2.4%).[8]
Toledo, Ohio - 31,792 (10.1%).[9]
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 28,178 (8.4%).[10]
San Diego, California - 25,201 (2.1%).[11]
Cleveland, Ohio - 22,978 (4.8%).[12]
Houston, Texas - 19,290 (1%).[13]
Detroit, Michigan - 18,992 (2.0%).[14]
Omaha, Nebraska - 18,447.[15]
Baltimore, Maryland - 18,400 (2.8%).[16]
Parma, Ohio - 15,503 (18.1%).[17]
Grand Rapids, Michigan - 15,442 (7.8%).[18]
Amherst, New York - 15,136 (13%).[19]
Erie, Pennsylvania - 14,718 (14.2%).[20]
San Antonio, Texas - 14,475 (1.3%).[21]
San Francisco, California - 14,332 (1.8%).[22]
New Britain, Connecticut - 14,257 (19.9%).[23]
West Seneca, New York - 14,236 (31%).[24]

It doesn't matter where you came; Polish or not. The fact of the matter is our heritage makes us who we are today. We are all the same race: The Human Race.....No matter your ethnicity; you should be proud of who you are and not ridicule someone for not sharing the same bloodline (if there is such a thing) or beliefs.

I am Polish. In fact, I am 100% Polish. Both my maternal and paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Poland and made Bevent Wisconsin their home. My ancestors had nothing more than the shirts on their back when they arrived in America and probably were considered by most, poor, but their will, pride and strong faith in God made them rich...rich as the soil they tilled to make a living. My maternal and paternal grandparents married Polish and my parents married Polish. I still consider Bevent my home and always will. The people there are friendly, easy-going and would never hesitate to help their neighbor. Listening to my Grandparents converse with others in "broken Polish". They'd throw in an occasional word in English, just enough such that, at the very least, you could figure out what they were talking about. I was told I didn't speak much English until I was around 4 years old; everything prior to was Polish. I'm currently teaching my grandson (5 yr old) certain words in Polish. It's going pretty good!

Dziękujemy za poinformowanie mnie Udostępnij..........Pamela M Ćiśźęwśki

A bit too many diacritical marks, in fact Ciszewski doesn't have a single one.
But anyway it's a nice story about a typical Polish-American family whose grandparents emigrated in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Harry and other cynical Polonia-bashers on PF would do well to read and re-read your description so as to better understand the spirit and ambience of old Polonia and their descendants who still cultivate their heritage many generations removed from the Old Country. They would call that a defect -- the purpose of life is to discard your roots, enter the rat race and make a pile ASAP. Nothing else counts. Except somehow they cannot divest themselves of their Anglo-imperialist biases, penchants and urges.

Dziękuję, Pamelo, for your heart-warming Polonian story.

Polonius, how is this determined? Census data?

No. The census form only asks for your race, not your heritage.

census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010_Questionnaire_Info.pdf

I believe that some censuses include a self-declaration of ethnicity. The 2000 one certainly did. It's a crying shame it's not every time. Many Italo-Americans, Polonians and others don't like to be lumped in as simply "whites".


That's quite typical of 3rd-generaiótion PolAms who know a few swear wrods, the names of a few dishes and a few random expressions such as "jak się masz?, "ja cię kocham", "daj mi buzi" and "dzień dobry".

Where? All I can find is a question about the place of birth where you can print the name of the foreign country, if applicable. Nothing about ethnicity and/or heritage. Do you think that the Polish population of the cities listed above were actually Poles born in Poland?

census.gov/dmd/www/2000quest.html

I suspect you should find out the number or % of foreign-born in the US and compare it with the list you've got.

Merged:

Good areas in USA with Polish culture? Schools etc.

What is a good area to relocate that has a good Polish community? I am thinking polish dance, school, harcerstwo etc.

I am familiar with Chicago but curious what else others say? Thanks!