What is your last name?       
Where are you from?   

Scots-Irish, German, English, Swedish, French, Native American,  African American ?????          

The answer to these two important questions link your present to your past, and; subsequently your heritage; your roots.

Are your roots in Appalachia?

According to historians, the first indigenous people in Appalachia were Native Americans (The Mound Builders).  The Mound Builders were two distinct groups of people, the Hopewell and the Adena.
 
If you are quick-tempered and like a good fight, you may be Scots-Irish.  (100 Scots-Irish names Indexed on a separate page) Most early settlers in Appalachia were "Scots-Irish" and English  and many of their descendants still inhabit the hills and valley of this rich historical area. 

The Scots-Irish arrived in America armed with a rifle and a Bible in the early 1700's. According to historians, Appalachian forefathers were in pursuit of religious freedom, leaving Europe to keep their lives and their religion, when they immigrated to Appalachia.  Later, immigrants settled in Appalachia for economic opportunities.  Scots-Irish People came to Appalachia fleeing the British Crown and mainly the Church of England.  They came by way of Ireland.  Due to their immediate immigration into the mountains they kept their Old Country culture; 17th century lowland Scotland and northern England.

The term "Scots-Irish" was first used in America after this group of people began their massive immigration. It was used to distinguish Presbyterians from Ulster in Northern Ireland  and from the Irish Catholics that came from other parts of Ireland. These "Ulstermen" were of Scottish ancestry, having immigrated from the lowlands of Scotland to Ulster a hundred years earlier.

Background:

In an effort to gain control, England in the early 1600s created a huge plantation in northern Ireland, forced back the native Irishmen, and opened the area for settlement by "true Englishmen." Few from England took up the challenge, but it was a rare opportunity for the poor people of the Scottish lowlands to improve their lot, and thousands of Scots made the move. Only 30 miles separated the lower coast of Scotland from the northern coastline of Ireland, so they didn't have far to go. The result was probably not exactly what the English kings envisioned, as these Scotsmen brought their personalities and religious convictions with them. They were Presbyterians, stubbornly independent and much opposed to declaring allegiance to the established Church of England.

After several generations in Ireland, these people could no longer be correctly called Scotsmen. Their pioneering spirit, and the environment of Ireland had changed them. Yet, they were also much different from the native Irishmen who were staunchly Catholic. Most of what is written about them refers to them as the Ulster Scots, or the Ulster Irish.

When the English kings started imposing untenable restrictions on the Presbyterian Church (the Kirk) in an attempt to force the Ulstermen to accept the Church of England, they started leaving Ireland in droves for America. It was here that the name Scots-Irish was first used to distinguish them both from the Scots and the Irish. This massive immigration from northern Ireland to America continued throughout the early and mid 18th century - until the American Revolution.

They flooded into Pennsylvania, filling the available farmable land, then into Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, then into the Carolinas. In many cases the surge was so rapid that there was no time to seek proper title to the land they settled on. The colonies encouraged their coming, as they provided a buffer between the large eastern towns and the threat of Indian attack in the west. Land acquisition was, in many cases, simply a question of moving in and building a crude shelter, their rights being acquired as "squatters."

After the Cherokee Indians were driven out of their traditional homeland in the mountains of western North Carolina and northern Georgia, the Scotch-Irish again sought "greener pastures," and moved into the mountains. From the earliest days, even before leaving Scotland, they had an earnest desire for good education. This, along with other enduring characteristics can still be seen in their descendants. They brought with them their customs of church life, stern Protestantism, now expressed as Baptists and Methodists for the most part. They also brought with them the knowledge and skill of making corn whiskey. Another characteristics was a quick temper and a readiness to fight.   Their independence and scorn of governmental control, dating back to abuse by English kings, is still exhibited in the rural mountain communities of Appalachia.

The arrival of Burk and of the Scots-Irish Col. Patton in Wythe County, Virginia as early as the 1740s reflects a pattern which historians have observed in the settlement of Appalachia. The two largest groups to move down the Shenandoah Valley during its original settlement by Europeans were the Germans and the Scots-Irish (in this case Patton). The Germans tended to find good farm land in the river valleys and stay. The Scots-Irish settled land on the edges of the valleys - and then eventually moved on to the next valley.

Much of the western side of Appalachia was settled by pioneers, mostly Scotch-Irish, who went from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania down the Ohio River Valley or from the Shenandoah corridor down the New River, the Tug River or the Holston River.

One family of settlers  had come to North Carolina after a generation in Pennsylvania. The grandfather had come to Philadelphia in 1717. His grandson, Daniel, saw Tennessee and Kentucky for the first time in 1767 during the French-Indian War.  Daniel Boone went on to explore much of Kentucky and West Virginia. In 1798 he left Kentucky for Missouri, saying that Kentucky had become too crowded. Boone was a Quaker; there is debate on whether his heritage was Scottish or English. And another Scots-Irishman worth mentioning here was David Crockett and his grandson, Davy Crockett was born in Tennessee. 

Not all the early settlers in Tennessee and the central portions of Appalachia were by any means Scots-Irish. John Sevier was French Huguenot; and there were Welsh, English and Highland Scots. There were many settlers in the mountains who'd known nothing but America 

The route to the "Great Valley of Virginia" actually began in southeastern Pennsylvania and crossed Maryland before reaching Virginia.  Many of the pioneers who traveled this path may have stopped for varying lengths of time anywhere on the way.  Often early settlers of Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Carolinas listed their birth places as Maryland or Pennsylvania. 

A second important route led across southern Pennsylvania initially to the southwestern portion near present-day Pittsburgh.  In addition to the many settlers who established communities there, a great number continued on down the Ohio River to (West) Virginia, Kentucky, and points south and west. 

It has been stated that 90 percent of the "Scots-Irish" and German immigrants to this country during the 1700's entered at Philadelphia.
next, Jewish people in Appalachia