Scotch-Irish-L Archives
Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2000-05 > 0957307107
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Subject: Ethnicity versus Genealogy
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 15:38:27 -0700
Hi folks, just some closure on the topic I introduced about Scotch-Irish ethnicity. Ethnicity isn't genealogy or genes, for that matter.
I beleive it was "Albions Seed" (Fischer) that pointed out that more
people in the USA identify themselves as Scotch Irish than could
have actually have ancestors from Ireland, if you do the math (Not
me, I gotta math block and must refer you to the guys who claim this
is so. Maybe they are wrong. With this math block I'd be the last
to know).
Mostly what we do on this list is discuss history and genealogy,
not ethnicity. We can point out if your ancestor was named
O'Malley and was a Catholic from Galway, you probably need to find
some gurus of Catholic records, and only by chance are there any
here. We spend out time with Protestant church records and trying
to trace a different type of person. Ethnicity of an ancestor
comes into play when we try to figure out more about the ancestor
and what it means if he did thus and so (fought for King William
at the Battle of the B, shut the gates of Derry in 1689 I think it
was, etc).
There is no requirement that you identify yourself as Scotch Irish
or Ulster Scots (or whatever) to participate on this list. Some do
and some do not. I've been told the list feels "mighty orange"
to a person with a strong sense of Irish identity. That alone may
make a few uncomfortable. I'd say sorry, but I'd be lying, that's
us and it feels comfy to me. I think I recall that we tend to tell the
blunt truth. So if you can stomach us, please hang around for the
party even if you just hopped off a UFO .
Linda Merle
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