We have a very small genealogy society (new) in our county in the middle of the east Texas pineywoods. I'm always passing on to them something Linda has shown on the mail list. World of difference than what majority of mail lists provide. Most aren't even monitored. And believe it are not probably the majority of people in these east Texas woods are S-I. They just don't know it. One 84 year old lady I interviewed for a county book was talking about the "sealy dancing" she did as young lady. Maiden name was Blair. Like my own family, many have passed down through the generations that they are Scotch-Irish with no understanding what it means. Linda expands that knowledge immensely. Ludie

Just want to throw my two pence worth in! With out Linda my HOBSON research would still be a long ways off Forrest Plumstead fplum1@gmail.com Researching the following Surnames: Bushouse, Plumstead, Risser, Schroeder, Senne, Thayer, Quaker Families: Coppock, Heald, Hobson, Hollingsworth, Potts, Ross, Watt Plumstead and Associated Families: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fplum/ Military Kool Lynx: http://geocities.com/fplum/ Ham Radio WB5HQO http://forrest.3h.com/main.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy & Carl" <travel@escapees.com> To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 4:42 PM Subject: [Sc-Ir] LINDA MERLE - we APPRECIATE you! > Do we appreciate Linda Merle??? You BET we do!! I have been a member > only > a few days of this Sc-Ir List and I am boggle-eyed with the volumes of > info > Linda shares with so many on an individual basis. I can see already that > whether I think a 'message subject' has anything to do with me or not... > it > puts me wayyy farther along to read as many of her responses as I can. > Has > everyone noticed that also?! Linda, I thank you from the bottom of my > Scotch-Irish cockles (or does 'cockles' a term the Brits use? <grin> > > Thanks again, Linda. > > Cindy McIntire (looking for Sc-Ir Tash for the time being) Johnson >

Hi Rose, thanks for your kind words. Actually I have been writing a book for a client but it might be a great cure for insomnia rather than a best seller. Most family histories are unless it's your family....hm...and even then! When it is finally wrapped up we will put the data on a website for other people to harvest. Then who knows what awaits? Right now I'm working with some folk in Malaysia who are 'onshoring' their transcription work for their teacher, a New Jersey lad of Mongolian descent who is now a Tibetan lama in Malaysia to the local Chinese. How that for a career path?? Linda Merle ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Rose" <roselynn@jeffnet.org> Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:22:05 -0800 >Linda Merle is the glue that keeps this message board as dynamic and >interesting as it is. And she has a comprehensive understanding of Ulster >history and migration. Linda, when are you gonna write a book?? I know it >would be a bestseller... > >In appreciation of all things Linda, >Rose >Ashland, Oregon > > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

I totally agree!! Thanks so much, Linda!! Mary Lou Tannich -----Original Message----- From: Scotch-Irish-L-request@rootsweb.com To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Sent: 3/24/2006 7:22 PM Subject: [Sc-Ir] Ms. Merle Linda Merle is the glue that keeps this message board as dynamic and interesting as it is. And she has a comprehensive understanding of Ulster history and migration. Linda, when are you gonna write a book?? I know it would be a bestseller... In appreciation of all things Linda, Rose Ashland, Oregon

Linda has a sense of humor? (Only yanking her sometimes short chain.) It's safe to say we all love and appreciate her hard work and devotion. Bill McKinney ----- Original Message ----- From: "Walt"Irish"- Cent.NJ Shore via Boston" <WaltIrish1@comcast.net> To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 7:16 PM Subject: Re: [Sc-Ir] LINDA MERLE - we APPRECIATE you! > Amen . . . and love her sense of humor etc. Walt > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Cindy & Carl" <travel@escapees.com> > To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:42 PM > Subject: [Sc-Ir] LINDA MERLE - we APPRECIATE you! > > >> Do we appreciate Linda Merle??? You BET we do!! I have been a member >> only a few days of this Sc-Ir List and I am boggle-eyed with the volumes >> of info Linda shares with so many on an individual basis. I can see >> already that whether I think a 'message subject' has anything to do with >> me or not... it puts me wayyy farther along to read as many of her >> responses as I can. Has everyone noticed that also?! Linda, I thank you >> from the bottom of my Scotch-Irish cockles (or does 'cockles' a term the >> Brits use? <grin> >> >> Thanks again, Linda. >> >> Cindy McIntire (looking for Sc-Ir Tash for the time being) Johnson -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >> Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.1/292 - Release Date: 3/24/2006 >> > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.1/292 - Release Date: 3/24/2006 > >

Linda Merle is the glue that keeps this message board as dynamic and interesting as it is. And she has a comprehensive understanding of Ulster history and migration. Linda, when are you gonna write a book?? I know it would be a bestseller... In appreciation of all things Linda, Rose Ashland, Oregon

Amen . . . and love her sense of humor etc. Walt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy & Carl" <travel@escapees.com> To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:42 PM Subject: [Sc-Ir] LINDA MERLE - we APPRECIATE you! > Do we appreciate Linda Merle??? You BET we do!! I have been a member only > a few days of this Sc-Ir List and I am boggle-eyed with the volumes of info > Linda shares with so many on an individual basis. I can see already that > whether I think a 'message subject' has anything to do with me or not... it > puts me wayyy farther along to read as many of her responses as I can. Has > everyone noticed that also?! Linda, I thank you from the bottom of my > Scotch-Irish cockles (or does 'cockles' a term the Brits use? <grin> > > Thanks again, Linda. > > Cindy McIntire (looking for Sc-Ir Tash for the time being) Johnson > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.1/292 - Release Date: 3/24/2006 > >

Do we appreciate Linda Merle??? You BET we do!! I have been a member only a few days of this Sc-Ir List and I am boggle-eyed with the volumes of info Linda shares with so many on an individual basis. I can see already that whether I think a 'message subject' has anything to do with me or not... it puts me wayyy farther along to read as many of her responses as I can. Has everyone noticed that also?! Linda, I thank you from the bottom of my Scotch-Irish cockles (or does 'cockles' a term the Brits use? <grin> Thanks again, Linda. Cindy McIntire (looking for Sc-Ir Tash for the time being) Johnson

Hi folks, and thanks for the thanks. I appreciate it. Meanwhile, here's one of MY brickwalls: an ancestress named Jane McGeary who married Frances Anderson, probalby in Westmoreland Co, PA. Frances squatted in what would be Butler Co, settling just up the cliff and over a hill or two from Freeport (the famous Allegheny River frontier town). He became the first Justice of the Peace. Frances' dad and mum had left County Antrim (probably) circa 1770. There was a Protestant McGeary family in the Ballymena area of Antrim. I have them eyeballed as the source, esp. since this famiy were Covenantors and hung out with my John Anderson, also a Covenantor, supposedly from Co Antrim (never trust people from County Down, Tyrone, Dublin, or anywhere more than five miles from your birthplace was apparently a trait they all shared). He married Jane McGeary but where he got her is anybody's guess. Living right near da in Westmoreland Co, in was Clemen[t] McGeary. He moved from central PA and settled I think around 1777 or so. He had eight kids but Jane is not among them. Clemen had brothers back east. There was also a small infestation of McGearys in "Augusta County", Virginia -- at a time when that was an immense area. They spent their time getting into trouble and liberating each other from jail according to Chalkley. Rowdy bounce! To date we do not know who her father was. There was a William McGeary, an alcoholic school teacher, in the Butler area. But he didn't name a sister in his will. Or a daughter. Jane was b. around 1777, if I recall right. My theory is Frances bought her off the Indians <grin>. Frances was an Indian scout before he settled down and became JP. I scraped the following info off the digital Pittsburgh site. All of this is well known. There was a man who did extensive publishing on the McGeary clan. Like the Blacks (earlier email), there were a zillion and they intermarried. There were definitely more around in 1800 than Clemen can be blamed for. My family has married them several times. We will marry a few more of them in the next couple decades. If anyone is researching McGearys and has a lost Jane.... email me! I know where the Indians ditched her. My stuff is here: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merle/Family/index.htm http://digital.library.pitt.edu Old and New Westmoreland pp. 337-8 Clement McGeary setted in Mt Pleasant area of Westmoreland. Left will recorded book 1 p 18, Jan 10 1779. He left farm to William, and John --- who left for the west. The two bought 400 acres between Freeport and Greensburg in Allegheny Twp. Their farm was 5 miles from Vandergrift on the road to New Kensington. William was the real businessman. Their nearest neighbors were 5 miles away, there being no settlers in Washington Twp. nor on the Allegheny banks. The whole area was uncleared and a deep forest surrounded them. William cleared his land, watching for Indians who stayed all day watching him. He d. 1851 at a great age and was buried in the old Pine Run Cemetery, which was on his land. He donated land for it and the church. He was an elder there. His brother John probably d. unmarried. William m. Martha Crutchlow. They had Clemens (moved to Jefferson County, where he lived and died), David (lived at old homestead, married and had children who moved to Indiana Co), William, inherited part of the place, lived and died there at age 80 and had William, Samuel, James, Martha, and Mary; John wo d. before his father but had a large family who inherited part of the old farm; Joseph -- also inherited part of the old farm and died there. His son WIlliam had Alexander; James; Samuel who d. locally; Rachel, wife of Joseph McLaughlin who moved west; Betsy wife of William Hill, lived in Armstrong Co. James was b about 1801 an d. 1875, m. Peggy Elliott, b. at Puckety Creek [flows from Allegheny highlands westish through Lower Burrell, flooding New Kensington, into the Allegheny], inherited 50 acres of the old farm. Had William (d. 22, unmarried); John Elliott (M. Sarah J. McLaughlin, lived on her father's old farm, d. at age 76, after which his widow moved to Leechburg); Rachel, wife of John Leech and then James McGeary of Armstrong Co {SEE! Already intermarrying]; James M.; Martha, m. William Shaner; Isabel, wife of Fred Amment, lived near Apollo, Armstrong Co, PA. http://digital.library.pitt.edu Old and New Westmoreland pp. 337-8 ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi folks, I found this doing other research and hope someone finds this in the archives some day. In any case, he was quite a man! The archetypal Ulsterman. His siblings did not emigrate so perhaps his family survives in Ireland. He was related to several prominant families: CLARK and CULBERTSON. I found it at the free resource http://digital.library.pitt.edu/ The Old and New Mongehela p, 42 contains the life of William Cohoun. A lot of his experiences are rather typical. He was born in Donegal, Ireland 4 miles from "Letter-Keeney" [Letterkenny] 10 Jun 1796, the son of Andrew who had been born, lived, and died in the house. Only William emigrated. He left in 1818, sailing from Londonderry on May 7 for Quebec. His destination was Chambersburg, PA. He had 2 uncles there who had built and operated a paper mill and a store, where he hoped to find employment. Since there were no large vessels sailing for Philly for 2 or 3 weeks, he took what was available, to Quebec, with 3 others, on a schooner. It's rather typical that he would take what was available. P 43. After six weeks they were caught in a storm and wrecked off Nantucket,where it lay upside down for 26 hours, the captain and sailors sticking to the rigging on the outside. Inside clung the little company of passengers. One was an old sailor who cut a plank from the bottom of the vessel, made all the passengers leave through the hole, which he then stuffed with bedding, cut the mast -- and the vessel uprighted. Everything on deck was washed overboard and lost along with sails and mast. They floated for a day and then were picked up and landed at Amboy, New Jersey. William lost everything. He'd brought over $2,400 worth of linen. By coming to Canada he would avoid high duty that he'd have had to pay in the USA. He could have sold the linen to finance the next leg of his trip. Oh well!! He got to his uncles where he learned that since most of the customers were "Dutch" (German speakers), he could not be employed as a clerk. He then rapidly went to a cousin WIlliam in Clarksville, Greene County, PA, where he worked in his store for 2 years. Then Samuel Clark, the town proprietor and his brother Robert Clark of Brownsville, sent him to New ORleans with a flat boat loaded with flour and whiskey. They left Millsborough in Feb. of 1821 and returned, coming up on the first steamboat to ever run on the lower Mississippi. ON her they got as far as Louisville, then took a small boat for Cincinatti. There the river was too low for a boat so they had to buy horses that they took by way of Zanesville. There Colhoun had a cousin in the person of the wife of the Rev Culbertson, a Presbyterian minister. They stayed a day. He returned and was employed in the small town of Washington as a clerk in the store of Alexander Reed.He married in 1823 Ruth Clark, the daughter of John and Hannah Clark. His health began to fail and he was advised to teach at a country school. He taught at a number of log schools and farmed part time in the summer. In 1844 he moved and took on a neglected farm, the Cook Farm, in Rostaver Township, Westmoreland Co. Much to the astonishment of all the softhanded school teacher transformed the farm in one season and was soon teaching the farmers how to farm. He was also a crack sportsman. Becoming restless again, he moved in 1849 to a 120 acres in Adams Township, Guernesy Co, Ohio that he bought. He died there June 24, 1871 of cancer of the face. He is described as tall and erect, maybe five feet ten inches, wearing a swallow tail coat, blue, and trimmed with brass buttons. His hair was dark and bushy 'with toilet not always up to fashion'. He did not drink but endlessly chewed tobacco (thus the cancer). He had 'by constant habit worn out the Irish brogue" and spoke an English "Emphatically correct". He was a fine penman and speller. No one bettered him at arithmetic. He was always a Democrat and refused all offices as the general result was 'to give trouble and make enemies". He had eight children: John, Maria, Jane, Rebecca, Ruth, Andrew, WIlliam and Elizabeth. LInda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi folks, a few weeks ago we had a history lesson on Pittsburgh. Many of us didn't realize that only Indians and French lived here much before the Revolution. I found a free copy of The baptismal register of Fort Duquesne, (from June, 1754, to Dec. 1756) / translated, with an introductory essay and notes, by Rev. A.A. Lambing. The printed source citation is The baptismal register of Fort Duquesne, (from June, 1754, to Dec. 1756) / translated, with an introductory essay and notes, by Rev. A.A. Lambing. Register of Fort Duquesne 97 p. : ill. ; 32 cm. Pittsburgh, Pa. : Printed by Myers, Shinkle & Co., 1885 http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?idno=00aee8620m;view=toc;c=pitttext These are not Presbyterian baptisms but Catholic of course. Also....the text is in French. This makes searching--- and reading! a bit of a challenge. Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi Charles, > Mary Ann married William BLEVINS ca 1828 in Armagh. I believe he was English and that is off-topic on this list? No, not at all! OUr website has more info, but the term "Scotch-Irish" is an American ethnic group. Beyond that ethnicity in Ireland is very complicated. THough the large mob of Scots who came in the early 1600s are what we usually think of, several of the public plantations of King Jamie were English. One of course Armagh. So many people are of English descent in Armagh. The local patois is different from parts of County Antrim settled by Ullans speaking Scots. Throughout Ireland there were populations of Germans and Huguenots as well as as English and Irish who converted to Protestantism. Since the research methodologies are the same, we cover them here. ALl the other Irish lists rightfully focus on the majority of IRish who were Catholic. This one focuses on Protestants. To resarch them you need to understand the records in Ireland a little differently. You access them in a different order. You are not going to find an Irish native who spoke only Irish on an early 1600s muster list of British Protestants brought in to subdue the IRish. Like looking for the names of King PHillip's warriors on muster lists of Yankees! Dumb de dumb dumb. However these muster lists are gold if you are searching for Protestants. ALso we require specialized knowledge about church records. Land records are more important to us as well as freemen's lists and military records. However we all must learn to do Irish estate work -- if we are lucky enough to be able to figure out what estate our ancestors lived on. By the time of the 19th century, religion doesn't matter so much any more: all Irish reseaarch is the same. Before that though, it is different depending on who you look for. There's a very useful horde of info on people in the Armagh area that's also in LDS. You can go to the Armagh Museum to get it but I suggest you pause in Salt Lake, check out it and a few other things in a two day marathon, then take the airplane to Armagh and climb Navan fort! GO to the museum and check things you can only get there. Let us know when you go as a certain lister can give you the names of the bst places to eat. I am still trying to lose the pounds I gained when I was eating with her. Anyway, there are very early rent rolls of church tenants. There are also depositions of people who suffered during the Rising in the 1640s. Because the people were English, they were attacked first by the Irish. I vacuumed out a lot of stuff related to my surnames. I ordered the film and spent a few weeks taking careful notes and photocopying. Beats going to the Museum and spending 10 minutes in a rush. There's a couple film in the Salt Lake collection with a lot of info n the area. I will find the film and post them. Mostly it's 'big names', not little guys, but hey, hope springs eternal, right? McElroy is very common with a lot of variants. Look for something unique...like she named a son Aloyious. Maybe her da was named that? I will need to do a DNA study to locate the home of my ANDERSONs, but I think they are from north/central Antrim. The family legend is that they were from there and there was a family near Bushmills that came with the McDonalds. My family were Covenantors, red haired, bad tempered, very musical, and carpenters. THey were carpenters when they came in the 1770s and my cousins are still building. The Andersons over there built Bushmills. One family to the south WAS involved with the Covenantors and married a HOUSTON (big Covvie name). I even found they were musical. The left brain knows this is all hoooiee, but the right brain is very excited. It narrows down where I need to tell the Loyalists to put the road block to gather DNA, at least. (Can't hire the IRA...they're AFRAID to go there) My other 'fuzzie' genealogy story is about the BLACKs. My mother says "They all look alike, there's a zillion of them, they married one another and you can never tell them apart". Mine were in South Carolina by 1795. We know where they came from because a brother was a famous United Irishman and American clergyman:Rev. John Black. They came from Ahoghill Village in Antrim. Of course my Robert married an AIKEN. A zillion of them that area... And WYLIEs, of course....if you know the surnames of this area of Antrim, you can pick these guys out in the middle of South Carolina or Mississippi. Anyway in a local history book on the area I found the VERY SAME passage about the local BLACKs as my mother: There were a zillion of them, they all intermarried, they looked alike and you can't tell them apart. Are these the same people? YES. Can I prove it? NOt till I get all the DNA samples. But I can find a zillion John and Robert Blacks in County Antrim. can't tell if they are the same or different guys. WOn't ever! The records don't exist. BUT if I collect a lot of info, I can narrow down the area where I need to look for DNA samples. So look for some dirt on your McIlroys...funny moles? Religious fanatics? WHo'd they hang out with? Who were their neighbors? What did they do for a living? Did they get into trouble a lot? That's GOOD! Lots of court records. Speaking of which, the US was the penal colony before Australia. A fair number of our ancsetors didn't have to pay their way over. You got a key element: a place in Ireland, so you can go look for McIlroy families in that area. How we eyeball that is fire up a CD with an index to the tithe applotments. This index has faults. You can pay soemone in Ireland to check the originals. Create a spreadsheet and note all the families. Then do the same with Griffith's CD. WIth Griffiths y ou get more info like the townland. Your's left but some others lived nearby, maybe. Get the townlands of all you can. They will cluster. THen learn who owned those townlands. You can get that from Griffiths. You can then do research on that guy. You can get huge amounts of estate info at PRONI, the gov website. you find out where they put their records. You hire Robert at www.ulsterancestry.com or someone else to check the estate records. Meanwhile you also check all the other records and you try to learn about the history of McIroy's in the area. Bell "Book of Ulster Surnames" tells you it can be Irish or Scots. It gives you a lot of variants to check for. The variant McIlroy is only found in Ulster. The Irish McElroy clan was in Fermanagh (next county over) and also in COunty Antrim. You can expect lots of them in Armagh. Here you need to know Armagh geography. WHere were these guys? Can you get a better bead on where? The Catholics got pushed to the higher land that was worse farming. As rents were raised and Protestants left for Amerikay, Catholics bought leases for better land. But locally everybody knows the history of everybody. So if you can figure out where exactly they were, you can learn a lot about who they were and whether they wee probably Irish or Scots. Or how long they were there. Or if they are still there. A few local experts are on this list -- but you will probably need to give us more of a location for them to be able to help. Linda Merle > I'm interested in Mary Ann and her ancestry. Is anyone researching this McElroy family? Or, is it researchable? > > > thanks, Charles > > > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

I've already received my copy of the first issue. I thought it was outstanding! Read it cover to cover. Bill Hawkins -----Original Message----- From: Linda Merle [mailto:merle@fea.net] Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 12:20 PM To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [Sc-Ir] Some free info and a new mag Hi folks, Today's free rootsweb review (sign up at www.rootsweb.com) announced a new magazine called "Internet Genealogy", soon to appear in your local magazine rack. There's a free downloadable copy of a preview issues: http://internet-genealogy.com/IG_subsRW.htm It has a couple useful articles. LInda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi Charles, ALl mine came in through PA (or ended up there!). We'll have to make you our resident expert and keeper of the flame of the New England Scotch Irish. Keep sharing your interests -- others will connect with you, maybe not for years. They'll find you via the messages in our archive. Be sure to check our archives -- the last couple years -- for info on where these folk came from in Ulster published by a list member and esteemed scholar. I think an article was published in the Scotch Irish Journal as well. A million pardons but I am very busy today and don't have time to do more checking for you without ending up in the Dog House and blowing my schedule for the rest of my life <grin>. >I'm interested in Thomas HOMES and brother John HOMES, both of Coleraine who are mentioned in Bolton's "Scotch-Irish Pioneers." Off the top of the head, check HOLMES at all time. There was no such thing as standardized spelling of any words in the 1700s. Surnames were spelt phonetically. I didn't make this up -- we're constantly lectured on this by genealogy experts in free columns, expensive books, genealogy ocean cruises, etc -- they do their best to educate us on the ONE SINGLE BIGGEST reason we screw up and don't bag our man: We think spelling matters! Only to us. If you came to me as a client here's what I'd do. I'd vacuum up all the info I can find. You can do this very fast by using NHHGS's website, www.usgenweb, www.ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, www.genealogy.com (has on line a lot of their CDs -- so you don't have to buy each one and you don't need to get a new line of credit when you find out the boogers changed location on yah!), etc. Meanwhile read as much as you can about local history and records. My experience has taught me that MASS records are VERy VERY VERY important. VERY. You need to locate published MASS records -- gov records, records of the French and Indian Wars like muster lists and lists of guys scalped and of ladies hauled off to Canada by the Indians -- looking for the surname and any info about people living near them or that their children married. You need to check out indexed manscript collections that you can get to via film or car. You need to learn how to do research. I learned this in graduate school. It is the single most useful thing I ever learned, after reading. I can learn ANYTHING, EVERYTHING. No doors are closed to me. I learned how to use a published book to locate the bibliography in the rear and then to pursue books and ms's in the bibliography to access more and more and more info. And more....anyway, esp with the internet, it's a critical skill for us all to learn when we are stuck -- like we all are here -- with doing research into families that has never been done before. It ain't like plugging yourself into a Mayflower immigrant -- they've 'been done'. You can spend your time debunking the latest theories, looking for obscure ms's buried in Providence that totally rewrite the Great Migration info. No. You will find that there's not a lot out there. You are starting from anew. You also want to read "The Resarcher's guide to American Genealogy" and stuff that will tell you how to establish a creditable proof. If our ancestors could tame the wilderness, we can do this. They asked the INdians for info on what plants to eat, which cured what disease, and so ons. We got these gurus who write these books to help us as well as our innate genetic tracking skills. SOmeone asked why I didn't write the idiots guide to Scotch Irish genealogy. Idiots can't do this. I might write "How to do Scotch Irish genealogy if you are willing to work at it" and teach some "Scotch Irish genealogy boot camps", but I think the idiots need to confine themselves to reading Mr. Kennedy's very entertaining and lovely books. I read them too and enjoy (Like Bill Kennedy's "Faith and Freedom: The Scots-Irish in America"). They are at amazon, waiting buyers. They will bring you up to speed fast on the bad old days when the Indians killed your wife and 5 children and made off with your hog. Glad I don't live then. I'll post a bit more when I catch up, but I must break some bad news. I was doing some work for a client on surnames. McJames (McSheamus McHamish, etc), McThomas, etc. In I think it was Bell "Book of Ulster Surnames" -- donno, I learned that HOLMES could be McThomas. If you know some Gaelic you can figure that one out. McThomas (an English version of a Gaelic surname spelled and pronounced different), was sometimes anglicized as SOAMES. So be sure to inspect the surnames of those around him for possible rellies back in Ulster whose name was already changed a big. It'll help with the DNA study. > I don't know when they made it to Massachusetts. Thomas died at Dracut 1726 and there isn't any information on him there. Brother John was the administrator of Thomas' probate, which occurred at Cambridge, Mass. Probates rarely ID where the person was born. You might be able to figure out when he landed by researching deeds in the area. Or beyond the area to Boston. For hints see the immigration course at www.genealogy.com/university.html . I always get hints from there. Maybe I'll begin my will "I Linda, born in the Rustbelt of PA in <CENSORED>, who lived in the following places at the dates noted....." but I doubt it. > I feel that the brothers may have been sons of a Hugh Homes who signed the petition to emigrate to Massachusetts 1718. > > Is anyone researching Thomas, John or Hugh, in Coleraine or Massachusetts? Check the MS collections at NEGHS? IF you join, you can ask questions of their experts, one of which I know is Scotch Irish. He may know and what he knows is much more useful that what we know here. He's an expert. Also you might consider starting a free website and list and message board focused on determining what we DO know of these New Englanders and sharing. That's speed up everyone's work. You can get free space at www.rootsweb.com. The point is there is more stuff on these guys buried in odd corners of publications and in libraries than you can probably track down in your life. Some of it is in PRO over in England, and would take years to find. Forget that. Some is in Belfast. Also expensive. SOme is in New York, info hauled off by descendents trying to find a warmer place with fewer Yankees. And Minnesota! California! Some is in collections like the Draper collection. I donno! but having spent a long time sifting through it, the more you find the more you figure out you can do. If you reach a point where you don't know where else to look (like now), you need to do some research -- reading - to find more places. Up till they came, these guys are just more New England colonials. SO ditch the ethnic thang and become the local expert on New England genealogy. Seriously -- you need to find every clue you can so you can build a profile of this person. That's about the only way to know for sure you found him when you think you find him in Ulster. Finding someone of the same first name and last name does NOT establish identity. Just because the puzzle piece fits doesn't mean it's the right piece. You need more evidence, like does it match the pattern? Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

I'm interested in Thomas HOMES and brother John HOMES, both of Coleraine who are mentioned in Bolton's "Scotch-Irish Pioneers." I don't know when they made it to Massachusetts. Thomas died at Dracut 1726 and there isn't any information on him there. Brother John was the administrator of Thomas' probate, which occurred at Cambridge, Mass. I feel that the brothers may have been sons of a Hugh Homes who signed the petition to emigrate to Massachusetts 1718. Is anyone researching Thomas, John or Hugh, in Coleraine or Massachusetts? thanks, Charles

My female ancestor, Mary Ann McELROY was born ca 1806 in the city of Armagh. She was a daughter of John and Mary M. McELROY of same city. Mary Ann married William BLEVINS ca 1828 in Armagh. I believe he was English and that is off-topic on this list? I'm interested in Mary Ann and her ancestry. Is anyone researching this McElroy family? Or, is it researchable? thanks, Charles

Hi folks, And even further north than Maine is Canada. I sub to surnamesearchdaily" , a yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SurnameSearchDaily/ Today's link to: http://www.abcgenealogy.com/New/24-Mar-2006.html Has "CAN-CHALEUR-BAY-IRISH Mailing List - Topic: A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the Irish Protestants from southwest Cork who settled in the Bay Chaleur area of New Brunswick and Quebec, Canada in the early 1800s." Ireland once had a much larger minority of Protestants spread throughout. Most were not Presbyterians or had fantasies about their ancestors being Scottish (their ancestors were English and Irish). Anyhow, many emigrated to Canada. Largely Ontario but hey, here's some that settled in Quebec. First time I ever heard of them too! Or...the Bay Chaleur either <grin>! Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi Bill, > What advise can you offer to me for finding their link to >Ulster or Scotland? Take the free courses at www.genealogy.com/html on migration research. Read a lot of our archives. We talk about this a lot. Look for articles in various periodicals. There's been a number. Basically you have to find clues here. You can get a free index to all the surviving Scottish OPRs in IGI. If you don't know what I am talking about, you need to start with some basic courses in genealogy (IGI) and then learn about Scottish genealogy -- in your timeframe. It is different in 1860 from 1760 <grin> ! Different records. You basically gotta learn a lot, unfortunately. I'm planning on enrolling in the Irish Research course >on www.myfamily.com that starts in a couple of weeks with Sherry Irvine who >I understand is terrific. Am not sure if her course covers both Northern >Ireland and Ireland. "Northern Ireland" as a state did not exist till 1922. Are you talking about Ulster?? I might also add that the state created in 1922 does not include Donegal, where many, many, many people came from. As I said in the last email, the immense majority of irish were and are Catholic. Almost every Irish genealogy course focuses on the majority and the minority groups get a brief mention. You still need to learn about basic, standard Irish genelaogy. You must THEN learn what does and does not apply to Protestants in your time frame. Sherri I suspect will not focus on repositories, which is where the "Northern Ireland/ Republic" stuff should come up. You are in the USA. What do you care what's in Dublin and what is in Belfast? Your concern is how do I get it where ever I am. The largest collection of Irish genealogical material is in SALT LAKE. Not Dublin and not Belfast. I fyou want to work slow, worry about what's in Dublin and Belfast. If you want to do some genealogy in your lifetime, learn how to use LDS effectively. There are also good collections in Minnesota, LA, San Francisco, Boston, etc. All better places to go. Go to Dublin and Belfast to dot the Is, focus on records you cannot get here, and to drink a lot of good beer. There is a lot you can't get here but in the 1700s much of the stuff we must first access is over here! It's not in PRONI because it was published. You can also find excellent collections in seminary libraries as well as universities. Any advise you can offer for reading, courses, >websites, etc would be appreciated. Bill, check our website (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merle ) and our archives. Use google. Best of luck! Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hi Cindy and Carl, It's amazing what you can do these days on the Internet. I was working on a large project for a client that traced a lot of family groups (trying to figure out which one our client's ancstor 'came from')....So okay you have them selling in Franklin Co, PA in 1802...where'd they go? Off to ancestry. I find them in the 1810 census in Ohio....2 minutes later. Repeat this a lot! It's amazing. WOrk that would take you years and years to do you can do in minutes. >all the New England publications in the local libraries that you listed in >your message. You may find 'the basics' like Hanna and Bolton. You can also get these and a number of others on a CD sold at www.genealogy.com . It has all the ones you need to start. You can find a huge amount of local resources in www.rootsweb.com and www.usgenweb.com. You also should join NEHGS -- their website has a lot of stuff on it, on line. I also think you get get to Heritage Quest through NEHGS. Otherwise let us knoew -- there are other orgs you can join. Heritage Quest is a huge collection of colonial and early USA records records. OH is it grand. You just save the pages to your computer. However if you want to produce a decent family history, avoid going crazy later when you try to 'check again' and being cursed by descendents, be sure to note where you found the image: the book, the author, etc, and the repository (Heritage Quest). I can send you a file to do it in. Also I have learned to suck down to my computer any websites I find good stuff on because next week the thing could be gone. Maybe the owner died -- who knows. Often they do go away and so does their stuff. So save it to your computer. Organizing all this is really a challenge.... >Realizing you have advised us that there is not much interest/articles about >Ulster Scots in NE.... is anyone aware of articles shedding light on >'why/how' the U Scots went to N England, the state of Maine to be specific?? Yup! Bolton wrote "the book". He tells the story. The first set arrived in 1781 on five ships. We only know the names of four....I think this is on our website in more detail (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merle ). They were invited by Cotton Mather. The Ulster Presbyterian clergy, Calvinists like the English Puritans, corresponded extensively. Unfortunately Cotton failed to research whether a bunch of Ulster Scots would be welcome. They were not. They were culturally very different: very low class the Puritans with unfamiliar habits and terrible accents. They also arrived indigent so they had to be supported through the winter. WOW did those Puritans hate supporting people. Then the religious problems began. Presbyterians were indeed different, more culturally than in terms of dogma. Most importantly their church structure was different. They would not conform to the Puritan model. However many more came before the real hero of the story, William Penn, who was off saving the lives of many Protestants in Europe who were dying in huge numbers, and lugging them to Pennsylvania. He himself had done time, quite literally, in a Cork prison. He had men around him who were Ulstermen, but Quaker. So he invited them. So before long, the majority of the Ulster Scots were going to Pennsylvania or the other middle colonies where they could practice their religion in peace and freedom. The Ulstermen that did come headed for the frontiers at first spring melt where they eventually settled towns of their own on the advancing perimeter of Anglo America. SOme groups went directly to areas that would become Maine, etc, rather than going to Boston first. There were several schemes, as usual, where someone bought a lot plot and lured over friends and neighbors, or tried to. Casco Bay comes to mind. Back then it wasn't Maine. It was Massachusetts. There were some very bitter times over who would govern. Eventually the aggressive Puritans of Mass forced out the businessmen and attempted to impose their theocracy on the frontiers, but not always with success. However often you can find records in Mass. Not sure what dates you are talking about regardin the shanhainng. No one was shanghaied to Canada till after the 1750s. No one was shanghaied to settle there as largely settlement was discouraged. People were shanghaied in the 1650s in Ireland and sent over as slaves to Virginia and other southern colonies as well as the West Indies. This was a massive, massive problem. Men were sometimes shanghaied into the British army, but then again, I'd have to ask you what the timeframe was. People did not leave Ireland because they were being religiously oppressed. during the times of real repression, they stayed. They left due to bad economic times and rising rents. If you read the books mentioned as well as Leyburn "The Scotch Irish", you'll learn more. The clues you found sound very very incouraging. Unfortunately it is very unlikely you will ever find a record in Ulster of him in 1720. You can probably find the surname about anywhere in Ulster. >A town history in Chester, Maine, had a paragraph stating, >"Rosetta Tash brought the dishes to Chester that her father and mother >brought from Ireland." This is a later generation but probably from the >same NH Tash line. So that is another >reference connecting them to Ireland Eh??? If you are shanghaied you do not get time to go home, pack up your wife and dishes. Rosetta's parents were not shanhaied. If they emigrated with dishes they were relatively well off people, probalby able to pay their passage and lug over dishes. However 90 percent or so of people lived on estates in Ireland. They rented little tiny farms or they were black smiths and carpenters who also grew their own food. Or they had a larger farm of 20 acres. Or they were servants in the "Big House". Or lived in a small tenant in a town. Not likely in the town in 1720. In any case they do't tend to appear in records. We got land record but they didn't own land. We do have muster lists and freemen lists, etc. But how will you distinguish your man from others with the same names? There are ways to proceed but as you can, it's not easy. A new book just written is "Researching Scots-Irish ANcestors" by William J. Roulston. It id's records in the 1700s and focuses on Protestants. One of the challenges for us is that the vast majority of Irish are Catholic. We are a minority. Almost everything written or taught on Irish genealogy is for the majority: Catholics, as well as the gentry and titled families. This is because you must do research on ther landlord to find records. NOthing is written on Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. This book does focus on Protestants. However you can also find Ryan "Irish Records" and Grentham's book and find out what can be got easily. It's there, all you gotta do is read it. Moving on from there, a massive amount of Irish material is in Salt Lake. You must learn to use the catalog to order the film -- much of what is in the National Archives in Dublin and at least 70 plus film from Belfast. It's a heck of a lot easier to do this kind of resarch from the USA. WHen y ou get a film, you can spend a month with it. Instead of 1 minute in a crowded facility in Ireland on your only vacation to your homeland. Ultimately though, you will need to do DNA studies because the records have never existed that will tell us where in Ulster our ancestors came from. They are getting cheaper all the time. > >Thank you very much for any help you can give me on finding where this >Tash/McIntosh family emigrated from, when, etc. Donno! The name's not in Bell "Book of Ulster Surnames" though someone else check....my eyes are crossed. Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

Hello Linda & Charles et al, Linda, thank you VERY much for the detail on why we do not find much in the way of publications covering the New England Irish and Ulster Scots! I recently returned to genealogy after 30 years absence - that was well before the computer research days. It is now a whole new learning tangent on making my way through the many links. I am now settled in Southwest after growing up and bringing up family in Maine. I hope I will be able to find all the New England publications in the local libraries that you listed in your message. Realizing you have advised us that there is not much interest/articles about Ulster Scots in NE.... is anyone aware of articles shedding light on 'why/how' the U Scots went to N England, the state of Maine to be specific?? Charles, my, supposedly, Ulster Scots first show up in Exeter and Chester, ME in early 1800s. That is as far back as I can 'officially' tie into that family. The name is TASH (my maternal grandmother) and the story goes: Before I started genealogy I remember stories from my mother and her siblings that this TASH young man was shanghaied/conscripted in 'Ireland' along with his buddy off the street. They were put on a ship. As they neared the shore of Canada, I think..., they overheard people talking of how they would be made servants once ashore. The two young men jumped ship. They changed their name to TASH in the U.S. The earliest notes I find of the TASH name in New England is in the towns of Durham (New) and Dover in the State of New Hampshire stating: "Col. Thomas Tash, born 5 July, 1722, was of a family that came from near Belfast, Ireland, according to tradition. The original name was McIntash. His father was Jacob Tash, who married (2) Patience, daughter of James and Mary (Smith) Thomas in 1727." [pp. 143-4, Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn, 'History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation): with genealogical notes' Durham, N.H.:Published by vote of the town, 1913, 952 pgs.] >From the snippet above, it sounds like Jacob Tash was in Northern Ireland in the 1720's. Also that his name would have been Jacob 'McIntash' or 'McIntosh'. I also believe his 2nd wife Patience might have been from the U.S. rather than Northern Ireland. No mention was made of a marriage (1). A town history in Chester, Maine, had a paragraph stating, "Rosetta Tash brought the dishes to Chester that her father and mother brought from Ireland." This is a later generation but probably from the same NH Tash line. So that is another reference connecting them to Ireland. Thank you very much for any help you can give me on finding where this Tash/McIntosh family emigrated from, when, etc. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Linda Merle" <merle@fea.net> To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 9:57 AM Subject: Re: [Sc-Ir] Robert Temple & Settlers 1719-20 Hi Charles, <SNIP> Do you know the history of the relationship of England and Scotland?...You need to understand the times when Scottish ships and Scottish merchants were foreigners and NOT welcomed in the English colonies. This is not to say a few were not here -- but there were few Scots in NE except for those in the pubs on the waterfront of Boston, Providence, oh and Ptown (etc). There were also Scots colonies in like New Jersey and Maryland, but you need to be aware of the dates when they were established. <SNIP> Three books to read. It really helps you make sense of things: David Dobson "Scots in New England", David Dobson "Scottish Emigration to Colonial America" and Michael O'Brien "Pioneer Irish in New England". O Brien will steer you towards addition records in NE. The way that they kept records is by town up thar in NE. Your ancestors are named in the town records whether they are Scots, IRish, aliens from Mars, etc. When you have gathered as much info as you can, you profile them and then you learn to do migration research. Theer's some great free courses on the INternet: www.genealogy.com/university.html . I do genealogy professionally and I still return frequently because....I missed things the first 34 times. Then you must learn to do Irish genealogy in the 18th century. If you take any courses on it y ou will learn it is impossible to trace 'average' people before 1820 in Ireland! if you don't know this, you do need to do a little reading. The good news is this is not true, esp for Protestants. They are far more likely to be named in the weird, strange records that they did manage to keep in Ireland before church records. BUT you gotta learn about how to find and use those records. YOu gotta have some info on your ancestor already. No matter how many Scotch Irish genes you got, you gotta learn this. And it's a lot like hiking to Pittsburgh in 1746: Only a couple people have done it. There's no "Scotch IRish genelaogy for Idiots" that's been written yet. I wish.... Also check the list archives (www.rootsweb.com). A list member discovered in Irish estate records where some early NE SI came from. He published an article, I beleive, and also gave us some info. THis stuff is not in Hanna or Bolton. It shows that by learning how to use Irish records, you can break new ground and shed immense light on the wilderness that is Ulster and Ulster American genealogy. Linda ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: charles <jitsu93@yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:06:38 -0800 (PST) >Linda: > I have quite a few early 1700s settlers in what is now Lincoln Co., > Maine. Most have Scot surnames and they most probably are Scotch-Irish. > > I have Cargill, Nickles, Holmes and McKown in that area. > > Today I did a "google" search for Scotch-Irish settlements in New England > and there is a mention of a McCoun that fits my time frame and location. > McCoun is phonetically McKown which appears on a family grave marker. Our > family also has a McGown marriage in the mid 1700s. The McGowns were from > Dresden, Maine. > > Back to McKown--my ancestor was Capt. Robert McKown, master mariner and > son-in-law of Alexander Nickles, the last commander at Fort Frederick, > Maine. I inserted Nickles here because there is an old article in a New > Brunswick newspaper that relates to them. They were both early fishermen > in the Passamaquoddy area of Maine and the story goes on that the Mckown > family was at Sheepscot and McKowns father was killed and robert was taken > prisoner to Canada. He may have been in Canada for quite awhile. > > I think that McKowns may have been in Temple's group. Alexander Nickles > was also my ancestor. > > I can put McKown in Maine ca 1720 and I feel they may have entered the > country with Temple . > > thanks, Charles