Hi cousin Randy and all my delightful cousins! Randy asks if we are Irish or if we are Scottish or both. After 37 years of genealogy research, I have determined I am a "Heinz 57" descendant. I can lay claim to any nationality, race or creed and back it up, HeHeHeHe!!!!! I am English, Swedish, Finnish, Indian, Melungeon, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Welch, Russian and Porteguese and about 50 other nationalities but All-American! I can literally take a Sunday afternoon drive down a country lane of backroads here in east Tennessee or southwest Virginia and if I see a family get-together or lunch on the lawn, I can stop and prove I am one of their cousins and eat lunch with them, HeHeHe! But one thing has bothered me since I have become acquainted with some of my cousins here on this board. What nationality or creed and which "old country" does the "Purple Boxer Shorts" syndrome originate from?? With the help of a couple of web sites, and of course my own brilliant deductions and knowledge, I will attempt to further your knowledge about our illustrious Kilgore ancestors...... The term Scottish-Irish came about as a result of England using the Scottish people as a buffer between the war-like Irish peoples and the English. England encouraged, and demanded in lots of cases, the Scots to move to the lowlands of Ulster and surrounding areas to prevent the Irish from living next to England and making war on England. Religion also played a huge factor in determining who was to be encouraged to move to this locality. There were really two great migrations of Irish (and Scottish) to Amderica. The first migration was in the 1600s and early 1700s. Those that came in this migration could not find ready land available along the sea coast because most of the land had already been taken by English settlers. The English settlers did not particularly like this influx of this unrowdy peoples, these peoples being used to several generations of war-fare with the Irish and the English since they were caught between both the Irish and the English. So under these circumstances, the so-called "Scots-Irish" tended to move very quickly into the western frontier so as to acquire land and also to get away from any form of "Big Government." They simply had the knowledge of war-fare, much better than the settlers of the eastern coast line, and the desire to be their "own boss," and the availability of free or cheap land to encourage them to become the frontiermen of our emerging great nation! The "Scots-Irish" were thus in position to be the spear-head of the move to colonize our great country from coast to coast, which they did magnificently!! Even today, this reluctance to "Big Government" and preferring to be conservative is very easily seen in our voting. When you find heavy areas of conservatism in our national voting, if you will also study the background of the peoples living in that region, you will find that they will probably be descendants of the "Scots-Irish" ancestors! Here are two URL addresses that will take you much deeper into the reasons and origins of our "Scots-Irish" and the origins of our name Kilgore. Our cousin Bill Willis, who is a stickler for accuracy and knowledge research, wrote the treatise on the origin of the name Kilgore. It is quite informative..... Origin of Kilgore name written by cousin Bill Willis: http://www.rectec.net/~rk/Kilgore%20History.htm Treatise on Scots-Irish: http://members.aol.com/ntgen/hrtg/scirish.html Enough of my chattering for now, Until later, good hunting, Jerry Penley in Kingsport, TN www.Penjaccphoto.com