The Highland Scots in West Ulster

Amazon is running a sale on the book 'The Laggan Redshanks.'  The sale price is only US $13.46.  The book tells the fascinating story of the Highland Scottish migration to Donegal in the 1500s.  Many of these Highlanders migrated to the Colonies in the 1700s and became 'Scots-Irish.' 

In the sixteenth century Scottish Highlanders settled in the Laggan district of east Donegal. They were called Redshanks. The history of the Laggan Redshanks has many fascinating elements which include Clann Chaimbeul and their dynamic leader the fifth Earl of Argyll, Gaelic sexual intrigues, English Machiavellian manoeuvres, and the Redshanks themselves. This book not only tells the fascinating story of how a Highland Scottish community became established in the Laggan, but also includes the surnames of the Redshanks and notes of their origins in Scotland, which will be of interest to family historians and genealogists.

Link to purchase:  The Laggan Redshanks

Scots-Irish, Genetically Speaking

The Scots-Irish were descendants of Scottish settlers in Ireland.  Many of these Scottish settlers were in turn descendants of Lowland Scots that settled in Ulster circa 1609 to the early 1700s.  Others were descendants of Highland Scots from Argyll, the southern Hebrides, and Lennox, that settled in Ulster during the 1500s.  Both of these groups in turn were the descendants of the various Celtic groups indigenous to what is now Scotland.  Recent DNA testing has revealed that the dominated DNA haplogroups of the Scots-Irish are R-M222 and R-L21.  Below are illustrations that show the geographic locations of these two haplogroups.

map showing highest concentration of R-M222

maps showing highest concentration of R-L21