Genealogy and a few surprises.

[CelticSire]

Lots of Scots Irish families seem to have settled in the Apalachian Mountains back when that was the western frontier of the colonies.

I've heard it said from some of my older ancestors that the reason our family settled in the hills of Kentucky was that it reminded them of the Highlands from whence they came.

[macwilkin]

I've heard it said from some of my older ancestors that the reason our family settled in the hills of Kentucky was that it reminded them of the Highlands from whence they came.

Most Ulster-Scots families were of Lowland/Borderers stock, although you will find a few Highlanders in the Ulster mix...

T.

[ThreadBbdr]

Most Ulster-Scots families were of Lowland/Borderers stock, although you will find a few Highlanders in the Ulster mix...

T.

Look at the pictures that Pour1Malt posts of the area around Dumfries - which is considered "lowland", right? Some of those pictures look a LOT like the Smokies and the Ozark Mountain areas to me. That and cheap land with good natural resources and not a lot of "civilization" would probably sound awfully good.

[Cawdorian]

One of the interesting things about the Scots-Irish migration to the USA is that entire families migrated together. In many instances two or three brothers would migrate from Scotland together, many others migrated as an entire family unit. No wonder some folks call us "clannish". Their very difficult life in Scotland made them very well suited to the rigors of frontier living in the US.

Many of the Scots-Irish originally migrated to Pennsylvania and later migrated down the Great Wagon Trail to Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia.