"Theydidn't change their Scottish ways whilethey were in Ireland"
THESCOTCH-IRISH MIGRATION PATTERNS INTOTENNESSEE
Reprintedwith Permission from Dallas Bogan.
Asearly as 1740, the Shenandoah Valley wasthe course of The Great Valley
Roadof Virginia, which continued as a wagonroad as far as big Springs,
Virginia(now Roanoke). During the middle of the1700s, the route was often
recognizedas "The Irish Road," simply because the majority of the
travelerswere Scotch-Irish immigrants. At present, the trace of the Great Valley
Roadis practically the same line as U.S. Highway 11 (or I-81). In 1746,
travelerson the Great Valley Road at Big Springs had to abandon their wagons
anduse pack horses to carry on, either due south into central North
Carolina,or continue into the valleys of the Clinch, Powell, or Holston Rivers
advancinginto western North Carolina, now Tennessee.
Butin just a few years after the opening ofthe Pioneer's Road in 1746,
theUpper Road became a wagon road as well.The Upper Road took off from the
FallLine Road (which is the same as U.S. Hwy1 today) at Fredericksburg,
Virginia,and paralleled the Fall Line through Virginia, eventually
reachingNorth Carolina some 60-70 miles west of the Fall Line Road. A present map
ofNorth Carolina shows the chief population centers along Interstate 40
asRaleigh, Durham, Burlington, Greensboro and Winston-Salem -- all the
villagesthat were first settled as a result of the Great Valley Road or the
Upperroad. The Upper Road is the only pioneer wagon road that does not
survivetoday as a modern highway -- it crossed several streams and rivers that
arenow large man-made lakes. Very little traffic came through eastern North
Carolina into the western regions, due to thelack of wagon roads.
Practically all the entire Piedmont region of North andSouth Carolina was settled
bymeans of the Great Valley Road duringthe latter half of the 1700s.
Thefirst land grants in north central NorthCarolina were in 1746,
conjoiningwith the advent of a wagon route (the Pioneer's Road) that became
feasiblein the same year. Before that date, land sales in North Carolina were
limitedto the coastal areas and up a few rivers. North Carolina's land
grantscame as a result of Lord Granville, the reigning governor, who opened
thenorthern section of North Carolina's counties for sale in that year. The
areabecame known as the "Granville District," which attracted thousands
ofmigrants from the north, particularly people coming by way of the
Chesapeakeregion of Virginia and Maryland.
Before1746, travelers from the Chesapeake into western Virginia were
obligedto first go north to Philadelphia, thenwest to Lancaster, then
southweston the old Philadelphia Road throughYork and on to the Potomac River,
connectingwith the Shenandoah River Valley. Amajor happening which
influencedthe migration of people from theChesapeake to points west and southwest
wasthe opening of a wagon road across theBlue Ridge Mountains in 1746.
Itbecame known as the Pioneer's Road, asnoted earlier in this text, and
permittedwagon traffic from Alexandria to Winchester,the westernmost town
inVirginia at that time. Winchester waslocated on the Great Valley Road,
andby traveling from Alexandria overland toWinchester, the route to access
theGreat Valley Road had been reducedconsiderably. The trace today of
thePioneer's Road is very close to that ofthe modern U.S. Hwy 50, which
crossesthe Blue Ridge Mountains via Ashley'sGap.
TheScotch-Irish ancestor who immigrated toAmerica during the 18th
centurywithout delay headed for western NorthCarolina, now known as Tennessee.
Thefirst farming settlements in the interior of North Carolina were
createdby a group of people who came from the ocean side area of Maryland and
Virginia.They brought with them a good understanding of how to raise
tobacco,the principal crop of the tidewater region of the Chesapeake This in turn
becamea primary crop of North Carolina. Manyof these people were second
andthird generation Chesapeake residents, however, a sizeable number of
themwere newcomers to America -- a group of people who are often called
Asa result of the opening of the Pioneer'sRoad, thousands of
Scotch-Irishimmigrants to America changed their travel plans after hearing from
relativesin America. Before 1746 the primary portof entry to the American
colonieswas Philadelphia. After 1746, Alexandria, Virginia on the Potomac
Riverbecame a vital port of entry for the newcomers from the Irish Sea.
"Scotch-Irish"was a name given to the people who cameto America from
about1717 to 1775 by way of northern Ireland,or Irish Seaports on either
sideof the border of Scotland and England.Although many had lived in Ireland
fordecades, these folks did not think ofthemselves as Irish. Beginning
around1607, thousands of border clan peoplewere encouraged to leave their
homesalong the English-Scottish border andwere transported to northern
Ireland.The enticement was a parcel of land, which the borderers could have
astheir own for a lease period of 100 years. For the next hundred years,
thesystem worked convincingly well.
Theborder clan people established thriving flax farms in Northern
Ireland,and assembled a linen trade that was the envy of Europe. They didn't
changetheir Scottish ways while they were in Ireland, and did not see
themselvesas Irish. In fact, most of the clans of the borderlands were more Scotch
thananything else, whether their traditional lands were on the English
sideor the Scottish side-- they had a history of taking whatever land they
wantedand were famous for their centuries of fighting Scottish kings,
Englishkings, or each other--it really didn't matter.
Abig change in the lives of the border clan people took place with the
mergerof Scotland and England into one kingdom in 1705. The border clans
becamean unbearable struggle to the English, and thereby, thousands were by
forcetransferred to northern Ireland. This time, the clan people were
treatedadversely which encompassed higher rents and shorter leases; as earlier
leasesran out, the tenants were replaced with new border clan people at
higherrents. At the same time, dreadful droughts, famine, and the crumbling
ofthe linen trade in Northern Ireland put the clan people into dismal
situations,and living there became virtually impossible. By 1717, ejected
Scotch-Irishbegan relocating to America.
Duringthe next 50 years or so, it is estimatedthat over 275,000 of them
wentto the American colonies. Most of them found themselves traveling into
thebackwoods of colonial America and the Appalachian region, extending
fromwestern Pennsylvania to Georgia. These regions were settled almost
exclusivelyby Scotch-Irish immigrants.
January 29th 2015
Everyone visiting the site should PLEASE check out the NEWS page for new story and pictures by Craig McKie................delightful about his ancestors in 1800s TASMANIA.
January 2015............Best wishes for a healthy 2015.......happiness is a bonus to be worked on daily.
January 2015......HAPLOGROUPS AND DESIGNATIONS AND NOMENCLATURE FOR SNPs ARE CHANGING..............
Please verify your SNP designation when you are visiting for the first time or haven't visited in some time..........let us know of corrections needed--Thanks
December 28 2014:
We have some new book links added under NEWS
The Sons of Aodh grew out of the need for some members to find a place................the members did not seem to fit any patterns and found no matches.
The FTDNA database was much smaller.............it is the hope of the SOA admins and co-admins that members will continue to seek the appropriate projects for their test results.
Specific surname and/or SNP projects are much better for the project member if available.
Members need to join the various SNP subgroups of the I....................
is just one and with a little searching google and wiki the other I subgroups can be located and joined.
Advanced SNPs for the haplogroups E, G and so on should look for SNP subgroups to advance personal research.
September 19 2014
A member of our group shared the following:
I just came across a copy of a book I did not know about. Its called
Medieval Gaelic Sources and its about the Annals and other associated
old documents from Ireland. People in the discussion groups sometimes
talk about the contents of the Annals, and they are now accessible to
anyone. But I did not know there was a book specifically about how the
old volumes came about, whats in them, etc.
I will put up a copy and make note of it on the SOA news section when
I have a moment.
Here you go...
Medieval Gaelic Sources
This short book is intended to serve as a practical guide to Gaelic
language sources (as opposed to administrative or ecclesiastical
records in Latin, French, or English) for the history of these
communities in the high Middle Ages, laying emphasis on published
texts for which English translations are available. Under six headings
(annals, genealogies, poems, prose tracts and sagas, legal material,
colophons and marginalia), it discusses not only the nature of the
sources themselves, the purpose for which they were originally
created, and their survival and availability to researchers, but also
how to glean usable historical information from them.
Katharine Simms is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Trinity
132pp;Ills. Spring 2009
Catalogue Price: €35.00
Web Price: FREE
February 11 2014: New book link added to the news section by Craig McKie.......some hard to find books given here on the NEWS Tab;
2014 offers several opportunities to advance your knowledge of your most recent common ancestors.
Today, 1-19-2014, we have further testing available with the FTDNA BIG Y.........
..............National Geographic GENO2 Testing..........
..............and, in addition, several 3rd party advanced yDNA test results are being seen.
The folks finding themselves in the Sons of Aodh are the very members who are most likely to benefit from this advanced testing.
Members of the SOA are best served when having tested to the max with their surname group before joining the SOA.
Analysis on 12-25-37 yDNA test results and, in many cases, 67 marker test results yield no better or different results than you will receive in your surname group.
Once having joined the SOA you must consider advanced testing to improve your haplogroup assignment.
PLEASE USE TAB ON TOP BAR: ********** JOIN REQUEST*********** to join this group.
...............Background for this project is to be found written by many family history researchers and our own FTDNA pioneers in the new and ever changing Genetic Genealogy arena.
...............Background comes from all those who have volunteered their time and spent a good bit of their hard earned funds in an ongoing effort to discover who they are and from whence came their ancestors and the modern day researchers who have given us the path to the future and the possibility to venture further back to ancient times because we now have yDNA to work with.
The Sons of Aodh are from ancient lands over many centuries.......
..........much, perhaps most, of their past is a mystery yet to be proven.
..........The evolution of surnames is such that any Irish or Scot may claim to be a Son of Aodh. Your surname can say one thing and your bloodline something else entirely.
..........Background will lead us to many very different surnames in use today and from all known and yet to be discovered SNPs.
.........The background has laid the foundation and we will build on that.
PLEASE USE TAB ON TOP BAR: ********** JOIN REQUEST*********** to join this group.
With a project as diverse as this one, with so many members in vastly different haplogroups, sometimes it is difficult to keep up with members' progress. If you have tested positive for an SNP and you remain for a long time in a grouping that doesn't reflect your new SNP result, just send us an email to let us know of your recent discovery. Thanks!