The Scotch-Irish -- The First "Americans"

Backcountry Notes ^ | April 15, 2010 | Jay Henderson

[jay1949]

Scots from Scotland call themselves “Scots” or “Scottish.” The name “Scotch-Irish” is an Americanism, recognized in Ulster but disdained in Scotland.

[jay1949]

“Yes, when you say Scotch-Irish you are actually saying whiskey Irish.”

Looking at it from that perspective, aren’t you saying whiskey-whiskey?

“And the Scottish people refer to themselves as Scots, Scotsmen or Scotswomen not Scotch.”

Scotch-Irish is an Americanism, recognized in Ulster/Northern Ireland but disdained in Scotland.

[jay1949]

All of Tennessee was once part of North Carolina until the NC government tired of trying to govern the ungovernable Backcountry types and cut it loose. To get a flavor of the NC-eventuallyTennessee state of affairs, see The Late, Great State of Franklin, http://www.backcountrynotes.com/history/2010/2/6/the-late-great-state-of-franklin.html

[jay1949]

I found that on-line at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chalkley/

3 volumes, a total of 1800 pages — ambitious!

[VeniVidiVici]

I saw that yesterday! I’ll have to go rummaging through it.

When I was in Pearisburg a few years ago doing some research, I visited the Giles County Historical Society. Very nice folks. They also have a pretty good gift shop :-) Anyhow, they had a copy of the complete volume set of Chalkley in there so I snagged it for my dad for Christmas. Read through some of it before I gave it to him and was very impressed at the level of detail.

[VeniVidiVici]

Oops. Meant to put the link -

http://www.gilescountyhistorical.org/genealogy.htm

[Dudoight]

Fantastic reference....THANK YOU so much!

I will have to book mark...or copy it and keep it.

Thanks again.