Tiny Frenchville is not quite as French as before. And in Lewiston, less than half of the people think of themselves as French.
From the potato fields of Aroostook County to the mill towns of central and southern Maine, fewer people are identifying themselves as French or French Canadian, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.
In 2000, 292,700 of the state's 1,274,923 residents, 23 percent, indicated that their ethnic origin was either French or French Canadian, down from 27 percent, 336,268, in 1990.
Some population trends, like stagnating growth in northern Maine and the move out of cities, account for some of the change. But it may also be that fewer people with French-Canadian ancestors identify with the ethnic group.
Susan Pinette, director of Franco American Studies at the University of Maine, has noticed that students with French Canadian heritage often do not think of themselves as French Canadian.
"For so long, Franco-American identity was tied to Canada and to the Quebec identity - of speaking French, of being Catholic," Pinette said. "And a lot of these kids aren't French-speaking, they're not connected to the Catholic Church."
The current census data does not indicate whether residents speak French. It does, however, show that an increasing percentage of people in some French-Canadian communities speak only English.
The new information summarizes answers from the "long form" sent to one of every six U.S. households.
The ancestry question was open-ended, and variations were included in the "French" and "French-Canadian" categories, according to Angela Brittingham, a demographic statistician with the Census Bureau. "Franco" and "Norman," for example, were counted under "French," while "Acadian" and "Cajun" were counted as "French Canadian."
All 16 Maine counties showed a drop in the percentage of residents with French or French-Canadian ancestry. Androscoggin County, the state's most heavily French Canadian, dropped to 40 percent from 47 percent. Aroostook County had the second-highest rate, 35 percent, down from 47 percent.
Some communities with a strong French-Canadian presence saw an even more dramatic decline.
In the St. John Valley of northern Aroostook County, the percentage of residents reporting French and French-Canadian ancestry dropped at a faster rate than the overall population.
Madawaska went from 90 percent French or French Canadian to 73 percent; Frenchville dropped from 93 percent to 71 percent; and St. Agatha fell from 90 percent to 73 percent.
Declines were also seen in Maine's old industrial towns, where mills once employed large numbers of French Canadians.
In Waterville, the French and French- Canadian population declined from 43 percent in 1990 to 34 percent in 2000. In Biddeford, the figure dropped to 48 percent from 64 percent.
In some cases, French Canadians joined the trek out of cities. Nine of Maine's 10 largest cities saw population level off or fall in the 1990s as people headed toward outlying communities.
In the mill city of Lewiston, the French and French-Canadian population fell from 61 percent to 48 percent. It wasn't simply a move to more-affluent Auburn, where the figure dropped from 42 percent to 37 percent.
The overall populations of both cities fell in the 1990s, while the surrounding towns of Minot, Sabattus and Durham saw growth of 35 percent, 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively. In those towns, the actual number of French Canadians increased even when their proportion of the population did not.
While French was common on Lewiston's streets 30 years ago, Francophones are now most likely found at church and the senior citizens center, according to Donat Boisvert, coordinator of the Franco-American Heritage Center at the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College.
"I think they're dropping like flies. The ones who were mostly comfortable speaking French would be in their 70s and 80s now," Boisvert said.
And the reason?
"Just assimilation, I guess," Boisvert said. "It happens to many immigrants after three generations or so. The native tongue weakens or even disappears."
Those changes are reflected in Roman Catholic parishes throughout Maine. Churches have closed in the St. John Valley and in Lewiston as the number of parishioners has dwindled, and French Masses are cut when there aren't enough Francophones to fill the pews.
In the last 10 years, parishes in Augusta, Biddeford, Fort Kent and Waterville have dropped French Masses, said Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Portland.
For all those communities, a higher percentage of residents spoke only English in 2000 than in 1990, according to census figures.
In Augusta and Biddeford, 87 percent spoke only English in 2000, up from 83 percent in 1990. In Fort Kent, the figure increased to 36 percent from 27 percent. In Waterville, the number increased to 88 percent from 83 percent.
