Mr. Haller, in his examination of more than 2400 German immigrants, found the largest occupational group was "music." The second and third generation German immigrants did not do as well in music. The second largest occupational group was "clergy", but the numbers here emphasized the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The third largest was "finance and business", and this was followed closely by "printing". Then "science" was not too far behind that. The next groups were "artists", "government", "medical", and "military". In the runner-up groups were "brewers", "educators", "engineers", and "entertainment". The range was 208 in music, to 32 in entertainment.
In the second generation, the largest group was "finance/business". The second largest was "government", at almost the same numbers as for the first generation. In the third or later generations, the numbers for "music" and "entertainment" almost vanish. The best staying power was "government" and "engineers". A few individuals were assigned to two categories. Dwight D. Eisenhower was in both "government" and "military".
In this data base, the dates of immigration are known for about 1416 individuals (58%). Thirty-three of the individuals had arrived before 1700. Going by the decades through the 1700's, the numbers were: 9, 27, 20, 47, 39, 57, 24, 22, 22, 17. In the 1800's the numbers were: 18, 19, 33, 95, 236, 190, 103, 72, 82, 49. In the first half of the 1900's the numbers were: 34, 11, 24, 103, 26. The fluctuations in the last five of these decades are understandable. I do not know the reasons for the large numbers in the 1840 and 1850 decades. The decline in the latter decades of the 1700's was due to wars, here and in Europe.
The first German in the list above was Peter Minuit, who was born in Germany in 1580, just over the border from Holland. He came in 1625 and became the governor of New Sweden. Not many Germans came until 1683, when they settled Germantown. Many of their descendants achieved prominence in America.
Many of the 17th century Germans in the list had names which resemble Dutch names (there were 33). These people came from the lower Rhine next to the Netherlands, where there were cross border cultural influences. But the people for this study were chosen by birthplace not by the appearance of their name. Fourteen of these 33 names were chosen because they were the ancestors of persons making the list.
(26 Jul 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.