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Archiver > APG > 2005-07 > 1121626513


From: "Linda Merle" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Scotch-Irish vs. Scots-Irish?
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 11:55:13 -0700


Hi Elissa,

The pontifs of the Scotch Irish Society often ponder the question you raised about the correct name. They continue to study the issue.

You can find out about the earliest recorded usage of the term 'Scotch Irish' on my webpage: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merle . Anyone with any earlier findings is invited to let us know and to present a paper at the symposium. I can also just supply you with Dr. Montgomery's email if you'd like to discuss it with the planetary expert. (He's retired from a large southern university so he's creditable, unlike myself). The Symposium is a little academic but they have the best after hours party I've ever attended. Everyone is Scotch-Irish, maybe that's why?? I donno....no one else appreciates our sense of humor but us.

They found the same that I did when plowing through many Scottish family history sources, OPRs, actual Scottish parish records, etc (I got the bad eyesight to prove it!): The ancestors of today's Scots called themselves "Scotch". One Scottish historian on my list has admitted that the preference for "Scots" over "Scotch" in naming themselves (not the alcohol <grin>) is a modern affectation. He might have gotten a few death threats for admitting it ....

For myself they can call themselves whatever they want to but when folks start abusing me for what I call myself that's when my mean streak comes out. Abusing people over two letters is very uncool. We're meaner than most Scots so we usually win this battle <grin>.

>Or can you never separate a Scot from his scotch? <g>

I prefer Bushmills myself.... I have been heard to say that at least the Irish fight about 'real things'. Fighting about two letters suggests one has lost grip on reality altogether! Then I start thinking of cloning Cromwell and pointing him north from Durham <grin>!

>-- Elissa in Pittsburgh where a lot of the Scots, Irish, and others settled

My hometown too, well, actually 20 miles up the Allegheny.

Linda Merle

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