Scotch-Irish and Ulster Scots Family Research
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Anthem of the Ulster Scot
This
anthem, written by Terry Mechan.
Antrim
Wonderful Website on North Antrim.
Antrim
list run by Liam
McFall.
Archives
Rascal is a new electronic gateway to research resources in Northern Ireland. You can use this web-site to search and browse information about the wide range of research and special collections held in libraries, museums and archives across the region.
Australian Links
Bann Valley
Barbados
Cromwell had serious issues with the Scots. Wary of their cousins, the Ulster Scots, he made plans to transport them all to Tipperary where they couldn't communicate with their Scottish cousins. However when he got to Ireland, he discovered that the Ulster Scot was on his side. At least the ones who spoke English. The Gaelic speaking Scots, like other non-English speaking groups such as a Flemish colony near Dublin, his officials put down as "Irish". Apparently in those days (1650's) Irish meant "didn't speak English"! (See Prendergast for more details). Thus in the most Scottish parish in Ireland, the census taker found only "Irish" because these were Gaelic speaking Scots.
The point! The point is that Cromwell transported many "Irish" to the West Indies. Apparently this included anyone who was caught unawares. There was not a policy of hi jacking, but rather a pattern of it occuring under the noses of disinterested officials. Many women were illegally transported to service men. It's possible your ancestors spent time in Barbados either as prisoners or settlers. Many of Cromwell's men, Englishmen, sold their Irish land to their officers and went to Barbados. Some Ulster Scots were surely transported. In Barbados some Irish assimulated into British culture and may be called "Scotch-Irish" after immigration to the main land.
Much of the Catholic merchant class in Ireland were exiled. Many continued to be merchants in exile. After Cromwell, some returned to Ireland, but many had made a new life in a new world. They appeared to be "Irish" but not Irish like new emmigrants, so they may have assimulated into the "Scotch-Irish". In a world with no Catholic institutions, their descendents may have become Protestant.
Later, too they appear in the mainland colonies.
Barbados Influence on Carolina
Battles
We are fond of battles. We like to learn our ancestors fought in famous battles. Being Scotch-Irish, our ancestors were usually on the winning side. We lack the Irish genes, apparently, required to compose memorable ballads, especially about battles we lost. Instead we forget our failures and move on. A cultural difference. Like the Irish, we claim to be the first in everything.
Pleasant Point was the start of the American Revolution, according to the US Congress in 1908. Many Scotch-Irish participated.
Rogers Rangers were the start of the Green Berets. "The unit started as the scouting company of Blanchard’s New Hampshire Provincial Regiment. It was organized by Robert Rogers, a Scotch-Irish farmer and woodsman who was in trouble with the law because of his involvement with a group of counterfeiters. At the time, it was customary for Provincial units to have a group of rangers for scouting purposes, but Rogers’ band soon earned special attention because of the extreme daring and skill they exhibited in frontier warfare." Source. While this website says Rogers was Scotch-Irish, other list members report that so far no one can verify he was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Books
What books should I read about the Scotch Irish?
These books are specific to Ulster Scots/Scotch Irish research.
Hanna The Scotch Irish, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1995 ISBN 56-18634.On line, free, at www.ancestry.com as "Scots-Irish".
Bookstores and Publishers
The
first place to check is Cyndi's list
.
The largest genealogy library in the world is the Family History Library. You can order film with much of its holdings.
Antiquarian Bookseller in Ulster -- Books Ulster
Heritage Quest not only publishes but also has a lending library.
http://genealogy.com has CDs and books such as CD 276: Scotch-Irish Settlers in America, 1500s-1800s Immigration Records. It has the following books:
- Scotch
Irish Pioneers In Ulster and America by Charles Knowles Bolton
- The Scotch-Irish.
Or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America, 2 Volumes
by Charles A. Hanna
Scots-Irish Links, 1575-1725. 2 Volumes by David Dobson
- The Scotch-Irish
in America by Henry Jones Ford
- Chronicles
of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Extracted from the Original
Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800, 3 Volumes by Lyman Chalkley
- The Scotch-Irish
of Colonial Pennsylvania by Wayland F. Dunaway
- Pennsylvania
Genealogies, Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German 2nd edition by William
Henry Egle
- Vital
Records of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 1719-1910
by Daniel Gage Annis
- Scotch-Irish
Migration to South Carolina, 1772: Rev. William Martin and His Five
Shiploads of Settlers by Jean Stephenson
Genealogical Publishing Company and Clearfield Company has thousands of titles.
Ancestry
publishes books as well as providing an on-line subscription-based database.
Check out the Ulster Historical Publications. Includes free downloads.
Canadian Genealogy and History
Canadian History and more here .
History Directory by Dick Garneau.
1832 Emigrants Handbook For Arrivals at Quebec
Carolinas
See USgenweb state and county links.
See the state pages at usgenweb.
Long Cane Website has a mailing list and an interest list page. It lists BMD's for the Cedar Springs ARP Church as well as families who migrated to Randolf Co, Illinois and the Earl of Hillsborough "Passenger List", 1767. This would be the Rev. Thomas Clark group.
An ARP Long
Cane Website with info on the Rev. Martin and a list of members who
signed a petition calling him to the pulpit Jan 1, 1797. Some of these
appear to be people or children of the people who came with him.
Long Cane Massacre with a description of the Scotch-Irish.
More good stuff with links to churches like Goodwill.
Church Records
Britannia's page on the church in Ireland.
Irish Presbyterian Information
PRONI web page with Presbyerian records. You access them from PRONI if PRONI has them or by checking with the county heritage society. It may have indexed them on computer. LDS has some too.
PRONI web page on church records.
Church of Ireland website.
Photies (as they say in Ireland) of various churches.
Records held by the Belfast Register's Office.
First Presbyterian Church of Belfast -- predating 1642. Online music.
Irish Church Records, Irish Ancestors' version.
Covenantors
Be sure to see the Carolina section. And Presbyterian.
Brian Orr's Site on Ulster Scots, Presbyterians, Covenanters and my One Name study on the Orrs.
Reformed Presbyterian Web Site
History of the Covenantors. Official Reformed Presbyterian website with link to the seminary library. The catalog is on line. This is where they deposit, not the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia.
Covenantors. This is a wonderful site. Lots of biographies of "Covenanters", on line copies of the "Solemn League and Covenant", an early history of the "Covenanters", etc.
Worldwide Covenantors.
Covenanter church college: Geneva. Check out catalog of the McCartney library.
Culture, Myths, etc.
Contra Dancing
Siege of Derry. Must have a few links on the Siege! I can't remember life not knowing about it....and I was raised in Western Pennsylvania and my ancestors too, for 140 years or so before me! That's how you know you are Scotch Irish: you don't know how to do fractions but you know about the Siege of Derry.
Cruithini's Siege of Derry. BBC on Siege of Derry. Symbolic meaning of the Siege. And a link to a page from Ulster. And the city itself. (Safe to view even if other links caused nausea.)
King William, poster boy of the Ulster Scot.
Much to my shock, I find I agree with James Connolly, quoted at this website: King William (Not a communist or socialist, can't stand Connolly, just providing some few balanced links, so don't send me nasty e-mail or I'll send you a midi of the worse music you ever heard.)
The BBC View of King William.
Much info on the culture of Appalachia.
DAR
The D.A.R. Patriot Lookup Service is FREE
Frontier
Galloglass Soldiers
"Have battle axe, will travel" this website says was the motto of these Scottish highlanders who changed history in Ireland. Many settled down with Irish gals and founded Irish septs. All this happened before there were Protestants in Scotland, so they were Catholics.
Genealogy Links
British Isles Family History Society in America See the Guide to Immigration Research as well as British Guide.
Here is a link to Family Tree Maker's FREE Genealogy courses. Pay especial attention to their excellent immigration courses. My family has found several ancestors' origins in Europe using their techniques.
Genuki is the HUB of British and Irish genealogy.
Check the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota
Society of Genealogists has helpful information, especially for Americans learning to do British research.
.General strategy on tracing Scotch Irish by Betit and Radford.
Article on Irish Civil Registration by Kyle Betit..
Standards of evidence in genealogical research. If you wish your work to outlive you or hope to gain the respect of others, you'll need to base your research on standards.
History
Website of Dr Ian Adamson has lots of articles and information. His article on the Scots-Irish includes a lot of detail on migration to the USA.Interesting Guardian article on the Battle of the Boyne.
Ireland
Irish articles at Global Gazette. Many excellent How To articles.
From Ireland -- by Jane Lyons. Some free info. Not focused on Ulster.
Irish
forums run by Liam McFall.
History of Portadown and Photos
Ireland's History in Maps
Origins has a FREE website for Ireland that searches the Web.
Don't miss LDS's website: Search IGI, search the catalog, and search websites. Get free PAF and guides to Irish research.
Migration to Ulster (Leyburn is the source).
Otherdays
Website by Francis Dowling, in Dublin,
is lovely. Get free access to thousands of photographs and prints spanning
200 years. Join and get access to numerous databases including the complete
Griffith's Valuation, browse through a library of nineteenth century books,
map collections, newspapers and much more. Subscribe
to the free Otherdays.com newsletter.
Irish History on the Internet.
Forum
for Larne
run by Liam McFall.
Lisburn
www.lisburn.com includes several books on line.
High Sheriffs of Londonderry.
Lurgan
Lurgan
Ancestry -- The site has now over 500 pages of records from throughout
the centuries in the Lurgan and Portadown areas in County Armagh, N. Ireland.
It has
The complete 1959 Lurgan directory (approx. 5,000 names)
Lurgan directory of 1918 (approx. 1,000 names)
The 1755 rental lists of Lurgan (200 names)
1864 Griffith's valuation for Seagoe Parish (part) with about 2,000 names.
Maps
Wagon Road south from Philly
Details of Wagon Road showing how New Englanders migrated.
Distribution of nationality groupings in colonial America. Some additional maps as well.
Maryland
Migration
William Filby's multi-volume Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, published by Gale Research indexes published passenger and immigration lists. It now indexes several hundred thousand people. Mr. Filby also compiled a Bibliography of Published Passenger Lists. You can find his series in libraries. He is also for sale on CD. And you can purchase on line access to him at this website. For colonial migration, Filby is the FIRST place you check, after you get tired surfing the Internet.
To get a better understanding of United States migration, see www.migrations.org.
The Scotch-Irish often migrated in groups, associated with a church or minister. This was partially because they were a clannish lot as well as aware that there is safety in numbers.
1718: Bann Valley to Boston with the Rev McGregor
Rev Martin leaves Antrim for South Carolina.
More information from Electronic Scotland.
Rev Charles Clinton Beatty documents his family's migration on the coffin ship William and Anne, 1729. This ship stopped at many ports around the Irish coastline. A third died before landfall was reached in Cape Cod.
Rev Samuel
Anderson takes forty families from Indiana County, PA to College Springs,
Page County, Iowa in 1867.The Rev. SAMUEL ANDERSON of Indiana County,
Penn. had a call to the United Presbyterian Church in Amity Township,
(College Springs), Page County, Iowa. So in the fall (April) of 1867,
the Rev. ANDERSON and 40 members of his congregation packed up their belongings
and came to wilds of Page County, Iowa. JOHN T. DUNCAN and his 1st family
were in this migration. JOHN T. DUNCAN was a man of excellent character,
and a worthy member of the United Presbyterian Church for fifty-three
years of his life. Source: [REF:#11] History of Page County - 1880; By
the Iowa Historical Society; Des Moines, Iowa, Page 623. This is
the source. The Rev is a collateral
line of mine. I believe he was raised in Wayne County, Ohio.
History of Internation Migration Site. Awesome.
Maps of American Migration Routes.
Everton's articles on immigration. Very good!
Some books on migration:
These are history books, not genealogy books. They have no names except for occasional expedition leaders. They contain a great deal of statistics and information on paths, early settlements, and the peoples who went there.
1. "Voyagers to the West", Bernard Bailyn, Knopf, 1986
2. "History of the Westward Movement", Frederick Merk, Knopf 1978
3. "The Course of Empire",
Bernard DeVoto, Houghton Mifflin, 1952 (reprinted) DeVoto wrote some other
books of particular interest to the far west. One is "The Year 1846".
Military Records
British Military Records Lots of information about British military records (no names though). Tells you what items contain what information and where to look or what to get.
US Passenger Lists
This sure saves time, it list
what passenger
lists are online:
However these two are good too: Search and Olive Tree. Note that only a SMALL NUMBER of passenger lists are on line. Most are not even indexed. We do not have any before 1820, though we have some records that hobbyists call passenger lists. They are incomplete.
Ulster Migration Studies
The Ulster Migration Centre will apparently be making their database available on line. Meanwhile good info is on the website.
Music
Music of the Ulster Scot in Ireland.
Old Time American music. And more. Blue Grass Music.
Muster Lists
Here's some 1780's muster lists.
Names
Names - Ulster placenames in the USA.
New England
New England Scotch Irish and a history of the Ulster Scot in Ireland by David J. Wardell. Nice map of Ireland.
The start of the Green Berets was Rogers, a Scotch-Irishman in New Hampshire and Rogers Rangers. A link to a Rogers Rangers site.
Newspapers
Belfast
Newsletter Index. Description of it here.
Northern Ireland
Newshound is "one stop Shopping" for political news. If you live in the USA, you may be amazed at what does not get into the US papers.
North Carolina
Long Creek Settlement, Mecklenburg, Co, North Carolina. Scroll down.
Great maps of settlement in North Carolina. You'll need PDF to download.
On-line Libraries
Carnegie Library: http://www.clpgh.org/ go to CAROLINE .
Carnegie Mellon University http://www.library.cmu.edu/
When you want historical material, there is a good chance you can get it through Interlibrary Loan at your local library. All you need is the author, title, publisher, date of publication, and ISBN if known.
Some libraries will loan genealogical material, but very few. One source for finding out if a book is still in print is http://www.acses.com
Another source is the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov . Also see here: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/catalog/
Your library also may provide EPIC or First Search, reference services provided by OCLC (OnLine Computer Library Company--or something similar--they've changed names several times) There is a very large database of books available and it will also show you the libraries holding it, starting with the closest one.
Orange Order
The global website is www.orangenet.org .See it for message boards used by both Ulster diaspora and Northern Ireland citizens. Very good history, including USA history, buy music, find cousins.
Ordnance Survey Memoirs
These books, by Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, are VERY useful but it can be difficult to tell which volume you actually need for the area you are researching in.This site should help if you know the parish you need.
By Parish this one gives the volumes by county.
The volume for Templemore (Londonderry city and surrounds) was the only one published in 1837 as originally envisaged. It was re-published in a facsimile edition in the 1960s and not included in the latest publication series. If you find it in a used book store it is a gem as it contains far more info than the modern series. (thanks to Rachel Dysart for this information).
Pennsylvania
Scotch-Irish in PA and Virginia.
Portadown
Satirical Humor: Portadown News
Presbyterians
Also see 'Covenantors', above, Carolinas, and other state sections.
Presbyterian Church in America...a very good discussion of the RP Church of America (psalm singing "Covenanters" ), the RP Church, General Synod ("New Lighters"), etc. This is the New Light side of the 1834 split. (PCA)
Comprehensive Website with HUGE numbers of bios and links to congregations. Excellent and thorough history.
Cumberland Presbyterian Archives
Presbyterian Historical Society where many documents were deposited. Many of these are filmed by LDS.
History of the Presbyterian Church in America
Presbyterian Alphabet Soup.
Not all Presbyterians deposit in Philadelphia. The Reformed Presbyterians deposit in Pittsburgh at their seminary library.
Geneva College. Check out the on-line catalog to their library.
Family Tree of American Presbyterian Churches
Family Tree of Scottish Presbyterian Churches
Local Ireland's overview of the Presbyterian church in Ireland.
Website of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Lists congregations nd histories of congregations as well as other books. NOTE: This is an organization. Congregations who do not belong to it are not listed on the webpage. For instance here is a non subscribing Presbyterian church.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland is here. This is the organization housing "The Covenanters".
Emergence of Presbyterianism in post plantation Ulster -- PDF
Religion
Have you heard
of the Society of King Charles
the Martyr?
Research Help
British Isles Family History Society USA web site. My right arm.
Family Chronicle article on Irish Research
You can buy a book on immigration research or get the help you need free, here.
Rootsweb -- our home. Great guides to searching family trees.
On Line Medieval Bibliographies
List of William the Conqueror's Knights and descendant
Rev Martin and the Five Ships
Rev Martin . Stephenson's book is on this CD. Revill's book is mentioned here. To add your name to researchers, click here.
RIC (Royal Irish Constabulatory)
Ancestry.com
subscribers with access to the UK/Ireland Collections can search a database
here:
Original data: "An Index To The Royal Irish Constabulary, 1816 -1921." On microfilm LDS Family History Center, 0852088-97- 0856057-2069, 1816-1921.
And here's
a free RIC Website
Huge
amount of info on the RIC
Rockbridge and the Scotch-Irish
Saint Patrick
Scotch-Irish
Albion's Seed (Fischer) version of the southern expansion
Another version of SI history.
Pittsburgh ethnic heritage SI with BritannicaBalch web site. The Scotch-irish Society deposits here. American Orange Order records are here as well.
Excellent site with history of the Carolina Scotch-Irish by William Anderson.
Article by Myra Vanderpool Gormley on the Scotch Irish.
Excerpts from Bolton Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America.
Scotland
Scotland in the dark ages. Massive amounts of info on the origin of the Scotti, original Irish or Antrimites, who colonized Scotland, originally Alba. Includes huge amounts of detail on the early Irish, our ancestors. Topics sure to grap your interest such as Erc and the Pictish Kings.
Scotch-Irish identity in 18th century Pennsylvania.
Site with a ship list of Scottish prisoners bound for New England.
Great history of Scotland.
Another good Scotland: A Concise History from Electric Scotland.
Annals
of Scotland -- on line book of Scotland from the Reformation to the
Revolution.
Scottish
Documents has on line indexes to Scottish wills, testaments, and inventories.
These could name relatives in Ulster.
Searches
http://www.caora.net/find.php
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/Index.html
http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/Index.cfm
http://www.irishorigins.com/Search.aspx
Ship Lists
A lot of people look for these but don't bother to learn what they are. Usually folks are in the USA looking for US ship lists. These began, by order of Congress, in 1820. Before that, no order of Congress, so no comprehensive ship lists. Some ports kept them. Most didn't. In colonial times, laws were made by Parliament. The only one it made required keeping lists of non-British arrivals, like the Germans. Not migrating British citizens. Still, some ports kept them, but very few.
The good news is that any that were made are published and probably indexed in Filby.
Here's a website with some ship lists including some from the Scotch-Irish list.
Cyndi's List. Always important to check here.
http://www.standard.net.au/~jwilliams/ships.htm
Search all the passenger lists on the Internet
South Carolina
Long Cane Website has a mailing list and an interest list page. It lists BMD's for the Cedar Springs ARP Church as well as families who migrated to Randolf Co, Illinois and the Earl of Hillsborough "Passenger List", 1767.
The Long Cane Massacre with a description of the Scotch-Irish.
Chronicles of the Scotch Irish in Virginia
Churches in South Carolina
Long Cane Associate Reformed Church Documents the Rev Martin's early career. It has a list of members who signed a petition calling him to the pulpit Jan 1, 1797. Some of these appear to be people or children of the people who came with him.
Other migrating Congregations
Rev Thomas Clark and congregation emigrated from Newry on the Ship John. They were 140 people. It was 1764. The migration included the entire congregation.
Surnames
BBC articles on British Surnames.
Tartans
History of Scottish Tartans. A more detailed history of the tartan revival. And here is the meaning of the word clan. More on the history of the tartan.
Timelines
BBC Timeline for Northern Ireland Excellent history at BBC.Timeline of the thirteen Colonies
Genuki www.genuki.org.uk is the most important resource. Many people have spent much time putting together this important resource.
Northern Ireland Genweb has many resources including on line records and county webpages.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND has a guide on line for using their records. Here is Beginning a Search. They have a search page with an on line database of Australian transportees. It also has on line searches of deposed school records (Republic counties only). Note that their guide is not very helpful since it only mentions sources after your ancestor left.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND now has its catalog on line.
fTHE NORTH OF IRELAND FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY is an organization which helps individuals research their family in Northern Ireland.
This website has many references to documents which can help you locate ancestors in Northern Ireland.
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland has immense amounts of information on line.
Ulster
Phil Manus's Website
Ulster Scot Agency (The language Ulster Scots is featured here)
Virginia
The Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia: 1745 to 1800 by Lyman Chalkley "is really the best starting place for anyone researching ancestors in Augusta County during this time period. This three volume series contains most of the abstracts of court records in Augusta County between those dates." MUST for Virginia research now on line.
Early Virginia and the Wagon Road
History
of Virginia, posted to a genealogy forum.
Irish Tract (Beverley's grant)
Vital Records in Ulster
See world genweb and genuki. Join the British Records section of Ancestry
See: Bann Valley church records
Wagon Roads (see Maps too)
Another one by Electric Scotland
