>>118186From the census:
"The ancestry question allowed respondents to report one or more ancestry groups, although only
the first two were coded. If a response was in terms of a dual ancestry, for example, ‘‘Irish
English,’’ the person was assigned two codes, in this case one for Irish and another for English.
However, in certain cases, multiple responses such as ‘‘French Canadian,’’ ‘‘Greek Cypriote,’’ and
‘‘Scotch Irish’’ were assigned a single code reflecting their status as unique groups. If a person
reported one of these unique groups in addition to another group, for example, ‘‘Scotch Irish
English,’’ resulting in three terms, that person received one code for the unique group
(Scotch-Irish) and another one for the remaining group (English). If a person reported ‘‘English Irish
French,’’ only English and Irish were coded. Certain combinations of ancestries where the ancestry
group is a part of another, such as ‘‘German-Bavarian,’’ were coded as a single ancestry using the
more specific group (Bavarian). Also, responses such as ‘‘Polish-American’’ or ‘‘Italian-American’’
were coded and tabulated as a single entry (Polish or Italian).
The Census Bureau accepted ‘‘American’’ as a unique ethnicity if it was given alone, with an
ambiguous response, or with state names. If the respondent listed any other ethnic identity such
as ‘‘Italian-American,’’ generally the ‘‘American’’ portion of the response was not coded. However,
distinct groups such as ‘‘American Indian,’’ ‘‘Mexican American,’’ and ‘‘African American’’ were
coded and identified separately because they represented groups who considered themselves
different from those who reported as ‘‘Indian,’’ ‘‘Mexican,’’ or ‘‘African,’’ respectively."
