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The Northern Irish Protestants are the most passionate people in the world , who identify as Britons first and foremost . That toughness has transported to the Southern states
The Northern Irish Protestants are the most passionate people in the world , who identify as Britons first and foremost. That toughness has transported to the Southern states.
I’ve had conversations with several commenters about the Scots Irish, and their impact on Appalachian English in the United States. This region was largely settled in the 18th-Century by “ethnically Scottish” immigrants from what is present-day Northern Ireland, hence the “Scots-Irish” moniker.
For a frame of reference, this short documentary offers numerous samples of the dialect spoken in the Appalachian region:
And that is the beauty of English: teenagers in the Bronx appear to use a dialect word that comes from an unique language spoken in Scotland. One word. Two continents. Three shores. Four centuries. Five separate dialects. Wow.
Thanks to James Webb and others more are coming to recognize their background. Apologies if I have posted this before. James McCullough left a diary of some of his experiences.
James McCullough....McCullough left Belfast in 1745, and landed at Newcastle on the Delaware, Cumberland Valley and eventually to the Conncocheague Creek area near modern Mercersburg. Here he farmed and carried on his other trade of weaver. The dairy entries are mixture of cash accounts and family events - 'Jean McCullough did enter to John Robinsons Scol upon Tuesday....' and farm records - 'I did begin to plow corn June ye 23 '. Then the first clouds began to gather: ' July ye 12 was put to flight by a fal Alarm from ye Ingens '. The Indian raiding parties were now coming across the Appalachians into the Cumberland Valley.
Behind McCullough's terse entries lies a story of official blundering and cowardice and terrible suffering endured by the people of the Cumberland Valley. The British commander, General Braddock, had been killed and the headlong flight of his troops left the frontier settlers without protection, and for the next two years McCullough records with monotonous regularity the murder and kidnapping of friends and neighbours: ' Robert Clogston his son and Betty Ramsey her son was killed.....Nov ye 9th John Wood and his wife and mother in law and John Archer's wife was killed and 4 children carried off.....Alexander Miller killed and 2 of his children taken. ' The diarist leaves to the imagination the gruesome details of these events.
McCullough's intelligence, humour and stocial acceptance of the situation comes though his laconic prose. On 26 July 1756 came McCullough's personal tragedy: ' John and James McCologh was taken Captive by ye ingens. ' These were his two sons, aged eight and five. ( McCullough was inconsistent in the spelling of even his own name. ) The boys were snatched while playing in a ravine close to their home. Beside the date of the capture McCullough transcribed a quotation from the Book of Jeremiah: ' Weep not for the dead....but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. '
In the case of the younger boy the words were prophetic, James disappeared completely. But after years of agonizing search, the father found John at an Indian camp. The boy could no longer speak English and wept bitterly when he was taken from his Indian family. He had to be tied up for the journey home.
Situations like that in the Cumberland Valley in the 1750s brought out the best - and the worst - in the Scots-Irish. Inevitably hundreds deserted their homes and fled to defended towns like Carlisle, or to the colony's heartlands around Philadelphia. But where defence was possible they stayed resolutely by the farms they had carved out of a wilderness.
My Grandma was the toughest person ever. . One of my older cousins remarked once that she would never 'get between Ma and what she stood for'. I do know that my mother's people honestly would rally when the call went out and they would come from any distance when needed. Very tightknit community.
They were southern Appalachian hillbillies, spoke the dialect, sang ballads brought over, and were of Scottish linege by way of Ireland. They were totally different from my Dad's people who were from the NC Piedmont
[quote=Ulsterman;50928910] Thanks to James Webb and others more are coming to recognize their background. Apologies if I have posted this before. James McCullough left a diary of some of his experiences.
Thank you Ulsterman for posting it as I had not read it before. I read it shortly after you posted it and now am able to perhaps understand what my ancestors may have experienced during their 'life's pilgrimage'. In tracing one's ancestry and genealogy it's not always clear or written what their experiences were. So many times it becomes apparent that these were not always a people who had the ability to read and/or write so some things have to be presumed and taken for granted.
I'm still working on their various journeys the difficulty being that there were so, so many with the same last names, literally a clan of the same people migrating one family with and closely thereafter and although I haven't verified it yet some may even came as indentured servants. They were poor and uneducated so the task becomes more cumbersome.
Thanks to James Webb and others more are coming to recognize their background. Apologies if I have posted this before. James McCullough left a diary of some of his experiences.
Thank you Ulsterman for posting it as I had not read it before. I read it shortly after you posted it and now am able to perhaps understand what my ancestors may have experienced during their 'life's pilgrimage'. In tracing one's ancestry and genealogy it's not always clear or written what their experiences were. So many times it becomes apparent that these were not always a people who had the ability to read and/or write so some things have to be presumed and taken for granted.
I'm still working on their various journeys the difficulty being that there were so, so many with the same last names, literally a clan of the same people migrating one family with and closely thereafter and although I haven't verified it yet some may even came as indentured servants. They were poor and uneducated so the task becomes more cumbersome.
Anyway, thank you again for that post.
HomeIsWhere, we all start with the first steps and I was the same. I was born in Ulster but didn't know the full history of our people and their journey to America (and elsewhere) until later. Billy Kennedy published a series of books telling of our people in America and reading them gave me an insight into just how big a part we played.
Will post up from time to time our story which for many years was neglected.
HomeIsWhere, we all start with the first steps and I was the same. I was born in Ulster but didn't know the full history of our people and their journey to America (and elsewhere) until later. Billy Kennedy published a series of books telling of our people in America and reading them gave me an insight into just how big a part we played.
Will post up from time to time our story which for many years was neglected.
Thank you, I appreciate all of your contributions.
To add to the confusion already in hand...
History of the Scotch-Irish or Ulster Scot
WARNING: do not confuse history with family history! History describes events of significance to the nation and mass migrations. Family history describes a single family or individual's history. It is very possible your family is different from the history described below. Mine is! That doesn't mean that either the historians or your grannie is wrong. You do need to be aware of the big picture to do well with family history. Many a brick wall is composed of erroneous assumptions.
The Northern Irish Protestants are the most passionate people in the world , who identify as Britons first and foremost . That toughness has transported to the Southern states
Think you've summed it up Dan, though we do have a love for Ulster
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Ulster Scots and Appalachian English
. One of my older cousins remarked once that she would never 'get between Ma and what she stood for'. I do know that my mother's people honestly would rally when the call went out and they would come from any distance when needed. Very tightknit community.
