Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Scottish are British. Scotland is in Great Britain.
Not exactly true and you probably just pissed off a lot of people. Scotland was never part of the UK or Great Brittain until just a hundred or 2 hundred years ago. Someone with more knowledge will likely explain this.
The census lists the predominate ancestry in the southeast as American, though in reality most of the heritage is Scottish or Scots-irish. The latter is a group, IIRC, that was run off of scotland and lived for a while in Ireland before migrating.
I'm not that much into geneology personally, by I have family trees passes along to me that I treasure. The internet has been a huge boon to research, so I disagree with your statement, Censusdata.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
5,509 posts, read 11,875,397 times
Reputation: 2501
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckzona
Not exactly true and you probably just pissed off a lot of people. Scotland was never part of the UK or Great Brittain until just a hundred or 2 hundred years ago. Someone with more knowledge will likely explain this.
Scotland was joined officially to Britain in 1707, I believe.
MANY of the early US Presidents came from Scots-Irish ancestors. The term "Scots-Irish" refers to people whose Protestant ancestors had moved from Scotland to settle in Northern Ireland in the 1600s. A great many inventors of things we use today, were Scottish - they were truly clever and ingenious.
The Scottish presence throughout Canada was HUGE. For instance, Alexander Graham Bell, Prime Ministers MacDonald, Campbell, and Mackenzie, the Fraser River, Simpson-Sears Department Store - these are all Scottish family names. Look on a map of Canada and you will see many towns and natural features of Scottish origin.
At least Scottish Americans have their many festivals, Highland games in North Carolina, etc. I would submit that Welsh (from Wales) are the truly unknown American group. Virtually no Americans identify as being Welsh, or even give a thought to Wales - maybe because after so many generations they are diluted with other bloodlines.
At least Scottish Americans have their many festivals, Highland games in North Carolina, etc. I would submit that Welsh (from Wales) are the truly unknown American group. Virtually no Americans identify as being Welsh, or even give a thought to Wales - maybe because after so many generations they are diluted with other bloodlines.
Good point. There are parts of Western North Carolina and Western Pennsylvania where a fair amount seem to identify as "Scots-Irish." Also in New England, Montana, and Utah there's apparently some places with high Scottish identification. (Warning pdfs)
Identifying as Welsh does look rarer. I think Welsh maybe got mixed with English even more than Scottish did. Or possibly the Welsh immigrants did not predominate in many places so they just submerged or assimilated into other groups.
Still I didn't know I had Scottish ancestors until I was in my 20s. I thought my Dad's family were just English. So I think a fair amount of Scots/Scottish just assimilated. In North Carolina, for example, that probably happened less as they dominated in some counties so maybe had less need to assimilate.
Not exactly true and you probably just pissed off a lot of people. Scotland was never part of the UK or Great Brittain until just a hundred or 2 hundred years ago. Someone with more knowledge will likely explain this.
As mentioned formal union occurred three centuries ago in 1707. Informal union is older because King James I of England is also King James VI of Scotland. Elizabeth died childless and unmarried so the Scottish Stuarts became kings of England.
However some of the highlands and the islands North of Scotland did not much care for this. Some lowlanders didn't either, but the lowlanders I believe came more to think of themselves as British. The Highlanders sometimes remained Gaelic speaking, clan-based, and even Catholic in some cases. Mostly though the Scots who came to the US were lowlanders or Scots-Irish Unionists. They were generally more hostile to the Irish Catholics than the British. Although I think North Carolina received some Gaelic-speaking non-British identifying highlanders, but I don't know how many. I thought the Highlanders who came to the Americas went to Canada more, hence Canada has some of the great Gaelic singers.
I'm about 3% Scottish, so I don't know if that gives me too much of a right to say much about them but I really do believe they were a major part of America's birth and growth.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
5,509 posts, read 11,875,397 times
Reputation: 2501
You're more Scottish than 99% of Americans and that's because Scott-Americans are now "Americans". We finally became a race of our own! Unfortunately less than 1% of Americans are this race.
I'm not really convinced that the people identifying as "American" are solely or even primarily Scottish/Scots-Irish. Many here have said that, and it looks plausible the majority are once I looked at the counties where people identify as such, but I think I'd like some evidence on that. The South received a good deal of English immigration, some even after the Revolution, and probably some Welsh or Cornish too. Also looking up "American, ethnicity" it seems plausible some who identify as "American" are ethnically mixed. I know that there were mixed people in Appalachia who found being deemed mixed upsetting or socially disadvantageous. If you were 1/8th black, 1/8th Cherokee, 1/8th German, 1/4th French, and 3/8th Scottish I could see back when just saying "American." And some just mean it as a political statement of patriotism, which I'm not sure is necessarily unique to Scots-Irish Americans.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
