My two cents worth (not worth any more!). I had Keowns who came to Abbeville area around 1770, and married into Youngs who were also from Ireland, (and connected to Keowns in the old country)..as were the McCurdy's....and I am failrly sure they all came directly to Charleston from the old country. By the turn of the century they all went to the Bowling Green Area of Ky, later down into Tn, Ala. I find others with the same names, and would almost swear they were related, but they came through Pa-Va. Another name was McDonald. My Matthew PICKENS Young married Martha (Patsy) McDonald in Ky. I know he was SC but can't figure out which group of McDonalds were hers. But there were some who came directly into SC from Ireland. Jean [email protected] wrote: > In a message dated 8/5/99 8:51:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > > There is a greater chance that the SC families > > living in the Upcountry(Spartanburg, District 96, Chester, etc) were > > from Pennsylvania than from Scotland/Ireland. There were some families > > direct from Scotland/Ireland to the SC coast who did move to the > > upcountry between 1760 and 1790. The earlier the family was in the > > upcountry SC the greater the chances they were from Pennsylvania. > > Hi Harold! As a general proposition, I agree with you entirely. There was a > message a month or so ago, however, from somebody who had info on a KNOX > family who came directly from Ireland to SC ca. 1760-70 and settled in York > County. They had one son named James and another named John. And if I recall > the details correctly, another son died at sea during the voyage. Of course, > we don't have proof that these people were the same KNOXes of > Pendleton/Pickens, but the theory fits the known facts pretty well, > especially since we also have information from the Pendleton newspaper obit > of the John KNOX who died in 1828 that he was born in Ireland ca. 1764. So > until additional facts come to light, my subjective probability estimate is > about 75% that the Pendleton/Pickens KNOXes came to SC directly from Ireland, > with only about a 25% probability that they passed thru Pennsylvania on the > way to SC. I am certainly not wedded to this interpretation, however, so I > welcome criticism from you and others. > > I have never seen info to the effect that any significant number of the North > Carolina Scots-Irish came directly to the Carolinas from Ireland. So I am > assuming that virtually all of the NC KNOX families passed thru PA before > going south. Please correct me if I am wrong on this point. > > It is also certainly very true that SOME Scots-Irish families were highly > educated and were very good record keepers, especially those who kept close > ties to the Presbyterian church. But I think it is safe to say that as a > general rule, most of them were not. [I take as my authority on this point > the excellent book by David Hackett Fisher, "Albion's Seed," which has long > discussions contrasting the Scots-Irish with the English settlers in colonial > North America.] Moreover, it seems to me that the families who stayed on the > move and kept on pushing toward the frontier, as did my BROWNs, were probably > worse educated and worse as record keepers than those Scots-Irish who stayed > in the Atlantic coastal states. > > As a final note, it should be observed that not all the "Scots-Irish" > actually had roots in Scotland, nor did they always live in Ireland before > coming to America. According to David Hackett Fisher ("Albion's Seed" -- a > book I can't recommend too much!), these people had their roots in the border > region between Scotland and England. Since the border was constantly > shifting, and since many a "Scottish" clan had land on both sides of the > border, the so-called "Scots-Irish" were as much northern Englishmen as they > were southern Scotsmen. Fisher prefers to call them "borderers." But the term > "Scots-Irish" is still OK by me. > > Regards, Jim Brown ([email protected]) > > ==== Southern-Trails Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to > [email protected] if you are subscribed to the list, > or [email protected] if you are subscribed to the digest. > In the body of your message put only the word unsubscribe