Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Social Sciences
Advisor 1
Sarah Fayen Scarlett
Committee Member 1
Don Lafreniere
Committee Member 2
Mark Alan Rhodes II
Abstract
This thesis studies the social mobility of French-Canadian immigrants to the Keweenaw Peninsula 1880-1940 and memory among their descendants to explain how French-Canadian culture in the Keweenaw faded over time. Oral histories were conducted to gain an understanding of the current French-Canadian culture in the Keweenaw, understand how the current generation perceives changes in culture over time, and provide possible explanations for why French-Canadians thrived in the Keweenaw. Tax records from the Michigan Technological University Archives and social mobility scores, mother tongue, and homeownership information from the United States census was analyzed to measure language loss, and the social mobility of French Canadians and the general population in the Keweenaw. This analysis was used to compare the social mobility of French Canadians to the general population in the Keweenaw and to conduct three case studies of individuals during the study period. Combining oral histories and historical data analysis allowed for a clearer view of the difference between mobility and the perception of mobility as was parsed out during oral histories. Keweenaw French Canadians were found to have had upward mobility during the period of study while continuing to hold onto their language and culture into the early twentieth century.
Recommended Citation
Schwaderer, Brooke S., "FROM CONSCIENTIOUS FRENCH CANADIAN TO ENTERPRISING AMERICAN: MAKING MEMORY & MEASURING SOCIAL MOBILITY OF FRENCH CANADIANS 1880-1940", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2025.
Included in
Canadian History Commons, Cultural History Commons, Industrial Organization Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Labor Economics Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Oral History Commons, Other Architecture Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, United States History Commons