Scottish-American Heritage Month
During the month of April, it is recognized in the United States as ‘Scottish-American Heritage Month’. Have you located any Scottish ancestors?
If you do have Scottish ancestors, you can take pride in their many achievements over the years in the United States, and even those achievements made while in Scotland.
Even if you do not have any Scottish ancestors, during April it is very interesting to see the contributions of Scottish-American politicians, leaders, inventors, etc. They’ve had a big impact on U.S. History.
Most people with Scottish-American Heritage are from the New England, Appalachia and the Deep South states and regions. The overall American population today has at least 10% Scot-Irish descent or approximately 25 million.
Some of the earliest Scottish immigrants came as merchants and settled in the 1630s in Philadelphia. It was Scottish families who originated what is thought of today as Southern Fried Chicken.
This could be a great month to really investigate if there is any Scottish heritage on your family tree. If so, discover more about those individuals, their occupations, where they lived and if possible, discover where in Scotland they came from.
Here is a start using FamilySearch.org web site. This site with 9.4 million records has Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 for Scotland. Also, use the Marriages of Scotland 1561-1910 which has 2 million records.
Also learn of some of the typical Scottish words, phrases, and sayings. Here is one “I’m getting the message” which means … I’m doing the grocery shopping. Also ‘Bonnie’ refers to something beautiful, ‘Haver’ refers to nonsense talk and ‘tattie” refers to a potato.
Photos: Scottish bagpipes and the Highland Fling; Scottish fashions for ladies and men in 1700s; and Scottish Outlanders.
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