Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2001-03 > 0983604485


From: "marg3" <>
Subject: Re: [Scotch-Irish] methodical approach
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 23:28:05 -0800
References: <d8.28f866f.27c433b2@aol.com> <3AA07E38.E6AC53AD@ocsnet.net> <3AA08F1D.5EE3172D@swbell.net>




Knute: Why don't you try the experiment of putting out this message in all
the appropriate sites on the www, and ask people to send in names of Scotch
Irish immigrants, and the year they appear in America? A small start on
this might mushroom into something really fantastic. There are a few
records in VA that could help get started. I know one of my ancestors,
Thomas Henderson, swore in the Orange Co. Courthouse, in 1740 that he had
transported himself, his wife, Dorcas, and a couple named Maclean to
Philadelphia from Ireland. There were more of these declarations the same
day. My grgr grandfather wrote in his Bible that his gr grandfather was of
Scottish parents, but in came to the U.S. from Ireland. He gives his name,
and the date of some of his children are recorded, showing he was here by
1735....earlier than that by a few years, as i remember from other
records... Many people must have records like these that would be a good
start. There are also baptismal records by Rev. Craig, who was a
Presbyterian Minister in Augusta Co., and preached and baptized in Albemarle
Co. as well. There are really a lot of pretty good records out there. I
think you have a good idea, and the way to start is to do it small, just
start--and see if it catches on and mushrooms. All it would take to get it
started is your word program, and start recording names, and records on
various dates, and keep them chronologically. If it works, and it gets big
enough to get out of hand a more sophisticated data base would be called
for, but an awful lot could be done this way. I expect that rootsweb, or
some other genealogy group would give space for it on the web, if it takes
off. I think an awful lot of people would contribute. It might not be
perfect, but it would surely be better than anything available
now....Margaret Behnke
----- Original Message -----
From: malinda <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 10:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Scotch-Irish] methodical approach


> Sounds like a great book and CD idea...in addition to the web.
> Why don't we try to talk Linda into writing it ?
> Once she gets moved into her new digs, of course.
>
> malinda
>
> "Knut W. Barde" wrote:
>
> > Leyburn, in his book the Scotch-Irish, discusses the five waves of
emigration to the colonies, 1717/18, 1725/29,
> > 1740, 1753/54, and 1774. For each of these periods he quotes sources
that provide a sense of the magnitude of
> > emigration, the type of people that left, and the locations from where
they left. No doubt other historians have
> > similar summaries.
> >
> > It seems to me that it ought to be possible with the fast computers we
have these days to create a data base that
> > uses all publically available genealogy information, including private
genealogies that have been published, and
> > sources like the LDS website, to create one list that contains the names
of all known scotch-irish emigrants from
> > the European side and scotch-irish immigrants on this side, the
circumstances and dates of their passage, etc.,
> > etc. The total for the five waves is estimated at 200,000 to 400,000,
and it seems that once one has a set of
> > data of a subset of individuals that are accurately known (does anyone
even have a guess of how many of the 200k
> > to 400k are known for certain?), one can then plot and trace the
preferred locations of departure and arrival,
> > places of residence in Ireland and in the colonies, clustering of groups
and names and dates, etc. So far it
> > seems all one gets is a pile of unconnected and/or anecdotal accounts.
There must be an intermediate step
> > between saying 5000 came in 1717/18 and gggggdaddy John arrived on the
good ship Hope in Philadelphia on June 1,
> > 1717.
> >
> > When entire villages in Ireland were emptied according to their bishops
and others who addressed the issue, there
> > must be more data out there than has been accessible to the general
public. Thousands of people on clustered
> > dates and clustered regions did the same thing for decades on end, and
it is from these individual data that the
> > summaries referred to above were compiled.
> >
> > Would the burning of the Irish records in ? really have destroyed the
kind of compilations of data that I am
> > wondering about?
> >
> > If the abc religious population of village xyz in 1740 up and went to
America, then that would be a significant
> > piece of information.
> >
> > Such a methodical approach obviously costs money.
> >
> > But imagine if there were one list with every known scotch-irish
immigrant and the pertinent data, and the ability
> > to then massage that data in a myriad different ways to reveal trends,
clusters, connections, etc., etc.
> >
> > Sort of a quantitative approach to genealogy, which probably goes
against the grain of the old school that says,
> > nothing doing except primary records.
> >
> > I guess I am looking for something similar to the books called Germans
to America, except searchable for all data
> > fields. Is there set of books called Scotch-Irish to America?
> >
> > The fact that genealogy is such a personal and individual endeavour
seems to take our eyes away from aggregating
> > data that then could result in documented group migration patterns for
specific groups, locations, time periods.
> >
> > Someone will probably say this is the lazy person's dream of genealogy.
> >
> > Knut
>

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