Ozark Mountains lore and history

A highly recommended book by Joshua Heston, of Branson, Missouri.  

In The State of the Ozarks, Joshua Heston is following the footsteps

of Ozark folklorist icon Vance Randolph. With a keen eye and ear,

Joshua records the people and cultures of the Ozarks in a collection

of enjoyable and very readable essays.  In the Ozarks many aspects of

life have changed, but the basic character and roots of the Ozarkers

remain and we are fortunate to have Joshua documenting Ozark society

here in the twenty-first century.

The State of the Ozarks, Essays and Photos of the Ozark Mountain Region, by Joshua Heston

To purchase: The State of the Ozarks

McCain's Corner: Viking, a profession for many Gaels

McCain's Corner: Viking, a profession for many Gaels: Gaelic Lord and warrior circa 1000 AD (c) Ulster Heritage  Gaelic Lord and warrior circa AD 1000 in Argyll.  Mid Argyll was one of t...

McCain's Corner: DNA Test Sale with Family Tree

McCain's Corner: DNA Test Sale with Family Tree: Barry R McCain with Ian McKean and Ivan Knox, two of his Irish cousins located using DNA testing For a very short time, until midnight ...

How to Participate, the Scots-Irish DNA project

Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas

It is easy to participate in the Scots-Irish DNA project.  The project's home is with Family Tree DNA of Houston, Texas.  It is a Y chromosome project and the goals are to assist participants with their genealogy, family history, and to locate kinfolk that remained in Ireland and Scotland and to find the geographic point of origin of the family.

Scots-Irish immigrant ship 1762

The Scots-Irish DNA project uses the Y chromosome paternal test. The Y chromosome is only carried by men and is handed down from father to son.  This makes it a powerful tool for paternal line research.  While only men carry the Y chromosome, both men and women participate in the project.

For a male who is in a direct paternal line of a Scots-Irish ancestor the process is easy; join the project, order the test and await the results.  An example: a man named Campbell is a direct paternal descendant from an immigrant from Ireland to the Colonies in 1730.  His Y chromosome test will reveal his related Campbell family branches, in Ireland, Scotland, and in the Diaspora. 

 

For women, and men who are researching a non direct paternal line, it is a little more complex.  Both groups need to do an autosomal DNA test to locate a male relation that is in a direct paternal line of the family they wish to research.  When one is located, that male can proxy test and provide the Y chromosome needed to research that line.  The autosomal test is used to confirm kinship with that paternal line.

An example:  A man wanted to research his father's mother's father's family.  While he carries their autosomal DNA, he does not carry their Y chromosome.  He did the autosomal DNA test, located a female cousin of that line, he then had her brother do the Y chromosome test and in this manner obtained the needed Y chromosome to research the paternal line of that family.

To join the Scots-Irish DNA project one goes to the project's page and asked permission to join.  The project is limited to true Scots-Irish families so a note stating that the participant is 'Scots-Irish' is required.

For women and men who are researching non direct paternal lines, they will do the autosomal test first; locate a male of direct paternal descent of the family they are researching, have him do a proxy Y chromosome test, then join the Scots-Irish project using that Y chromosome results.

There is a stereotype of all Scots-Irish being descendants of Ulster Scots that in turn were descendants of Lowland Scots who settled in Ulster during the Ulster Plantation in the seventeenth century.  It is true that many were, it is also true that many families that were Scots-Irish have other origins.  As many as 35% of the Scots-Irish are of Highland Scots ancestry, usually from mid and northern Argyll or Lennox.  There two areas in the Highlands were influenced by the reformed church movement in Scotland at an early date and also had migration to the north of Ireland beginning in the 1500s and continuing into the 1600s.  Two of the most numerous 'Scots-Irish' surnames are Campbell and MacDonald, both of Highland Scots origin. 

Other families also became Scots-Irish.  In east Donegal and in the Bann valley area, there was many native Irish families that converted to the reformed church and later the Presbyterian faith, and also were part of the Ulster migration to the New World in the 1700s. 

There were also a number of Welsh and English families that were living in Ireland and participated in the Ulster Migration and that became part of the Scots-Irish society in the Colonies.  In the Colonies the process continued, with Platt Deutsch, American Indian, and others, marrying into and became allied to and part of the Scots-Irish community here.

While most Scots-Irish came from the nine counties that make up the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland, some Scots-Irish came from other parts of Ireland.  By the 1700s there were families of Scottish origin living in many parts of Ireland and some Scots-Irish have ancestors that migrated to the Colonies from Mayo, Sligo, Dublin, Cork, etc. 

The criteria we use at the Scots-Irish DNA project is, does your family consider themselves 'Scots-Irish.'   One of the goals of the project is to collect data on the origins of the Scots-Irish and to add to the information we already have on them.   Most of the families that are participating are 'Ulster Scots'  and have ancestors from Ulster that immigrated to the Colonies in the 1700s, but as the project grows we are getting families that originate from other parts of Ireland who are very much Scots-Irish.

To join the project:  Scots-Irish DNA Project

Scots-Irish DNA Project results:  Results 

Scots-Irish DNA Project Update 2 Jan 2016

'Young Frontiersman' by H. David Wright

The Scots-Irish DNA project has reached 1,000 participating families.  This list below shows families participating in the Scots-Irish DNA project.  It is NOT a comprehensive list of all Scots-Irish surnames; it is a list of those Scots-Irish families that are participating to date in the Scots-Irish DNA project.

 

The families participating show very typical Scots-Irish surnames.  The surnames originate from around Scotland, but the majority of the families are from the western Lowlands and the southwest Highlands. The majority of the haplogroups (circa 86%) show most Scots-Irish are the descendants of the Cumbric and Gaelic Celtic people of southern and western Scotland, with about 10% being of Norse or Norman ancestry. 

 

The majority of the Lowland surnames continue to be from Ayrshire, Wigtown, Kirkcubright, Dumfries, Lanark, and Renfrew (using pre 1975 nomenclature).   Many of the families participating in the project are descendants of the first wave of Scottish settlers in Ireland and the surnames of Cunningham, Hamilton, Stewart, Montgomery, Graham, etc., are well represented.   

 

The Highland families are from the southern Hebrides, Argyll, Lennox, and Dumbartonshire.  Two Highland clans that sent many families to Ireland in the mid to late 1500s are Clann Dhónaill and Clann Chaimbeul and both are well represented in the Scots-Irish DNA project participants. Those surnames associated with Clann Dhónaill tend to be from County Antrim and northeast Ulster in general and those associated with Clann Chaimbeul are usually from west Ulster, from Donegal, Tyrone, and Londonderry.

 

While most Scots-Irish families are of 'Ulster Scots'  ancestry and are from one of the nine counties of Ulster; Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, in  Northern Ireland and Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, in the Republic of Ireland.  However, there are a number of Scots-Irish families from other parts of Ireland such as County Mayo, Sligo, from urban areas such as Cork, Galway, and Dublin.  Most of these families migrated to the New World in the 1700s and became what we now call the Scots-Irish and self identify themselves as being Scots-Irish.   

 

The Scots-Irish DNA project is run through Family Tree DNA.  The goals are to help Scots-Irish families in the Diaspora re-establish contact with their kinspeople in Ireland and Scotland, and to confirm genealogies and recover lost family history using DNA testing.

 

Surnames that have multiple listings indicate the number of families with that surname that have joined the project.   

To view, click on a page and this will bring that page up in a larger format. 

To view the DNA results, visit the Scots-Irish DNA project results page.

All families that identify themselves as Scots-Irish are welcomed participate in the project:  Join Scots-Irish DNA project.