Hi Marsha, people can and do change religion and ethnicity all the time, so don't get too attached to a label. "Scotch Irish" is an American ethnicity, just meaning they were from a certain area of the USA. Morrison can be English, Scots, or Irish in origin (Bell "Book of Ulster Surnames"). There was a very learned sept in Donegal named O'Muirgheasain (from 'sea valor') who were erenaghs (hereditary keepers) of Conmany in Inishowen. Not only did some anglicize the name to O'Morison, Morison, Morrison, but also Bryson (esp. in Derry). In Donegal Bryson, Brice, and Bryce were also used for Breslin. A branch of this sept moved to Lewis and Harris in the Scottish Isles at an unknown date, where they became bards to the MacLeods of Dunvegan. Etc, etc..... Of couse the English ones were 'son of Maurice' or Morris. Also two septs of Clan Buchanan were called MacMaurice and eventually Morrison. You should order a DNA test immediately. Since you're looking at Donegal, the odds are the DNA is northwest Irish. If it's Scots then it gets more complicated. But most likely they were among the many Donegalese who left their homeland in the 1700s. See Kirby Miller's book on Irish emigration. Projects like the Cumberland Gap DNA project show immense amounts of north west Irish DNA, supporting his opinion that Donegal lost much of its Irish population in the 1700s. Other than the DNA test, you just slog through the records. There are lot on line now, but keep careful records of what you check, including what you check but don't find nothing in. That's to avoid re-searching that source 20 times! Esp. irritating when you've hired someone to research and y ou don't give them a list of what you searched and what you found. So they, being thorough, execute the standard search and search these things again. Yes, maybe they can find something you haven't but I suspect you'd prefer they search somewhere you hadn't <grin>. So it's important to do. I of course didn't do this the first 10 years or so of my research either but I do it of course with clients and durn.....it really helps. Linda Merle ----- Original Message ----- From: "marsha moses" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:46:38 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [S-I] Morrison from Donegal I have just added a possible 5-gr-grandfather and 6-gr-grandfather to my ancestors. Because this is a VERY new possibility, I am just starting my research on this line. The younger man's name is Patrick Henry Morrison and his father's name is James Morrison. The family history books in my area that have articles submitted by researchers (and I realize are thus suspect) say that James and Rachel Morrison moved to Pittsylvania County, Virginia in the mid to late 1700's from Donegal. Now I realize that Donegal is part of Ulster Province, but NOT part of Northern Ireland---being instead a part of the Republic of Ireland. So the question here is do I suspect SI or do I suspect Irish for the surname Morrison coming out of Donegal? Please, I am not asking anyone to do my research for me, just looking for a small boost if anyone has this answer off the top of their heads.....I am mostly just curious at this very early part of my looking around. marsha in WV ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message