Maybe I'm Not That Irish Afterall

 Recently I checked by Ancestry.com account as they periodically update the genetic findings.  At my last check my Irish heritage seemed much higher.  But it's interesting how this update seems to affirm something my mother may have told me many years before.  She mentioned that our background was, in part, "Scots-Irish" (although she, and others, often referred to it as "Scotch-Irish"). 


In this latest update my profile is now only 8% Irish, but 28% Scottish.  But here's the interesting part.  If you click on "What does this map show?" regarding the map graphic to the left, they break down the regions with regard to the percentage of Scottish heritage among locals. In the 25% to 50% category one of the colored regions associated with that was the northeast corner of Ireland, the area associated with the "Ulster Irish" or "Scot-Irish."  

Back in 2014 my eldest daughter and her husband gave me a book The Other Irish - The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America by Karen F. Mccarthy.  I have looked at parts of it, but have yet to read it 'cover-to-cover.'  So, I think that this will be one of my next recreational reads, perhaps in the coming year. 

 Although it might seem more flashy to think I'm descended from the Highlanders, it seems my roots are more from the lowlanders of the great nation of Scotland and then from those transplanted Scots in northern Ireland.  I was always a bit fuzzy on whether my Macauley connection (via my maternal grandmother) linked me more with Ireland or Scotland.  Now I realize the answer may be: both.  An online article, "MacAuley - origins in Ireland and Scotland," (https://ireland-calling.com/irish-names-macauley/) notes that this name is popular all over Ireland today, but especially in Ulster, Connacht, and Leinster.  According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Scots_people) Scots began populating this area of Ireland as far back as the 1600s.  They then began, in considerable numbers, to emigrate to the US in the 1700s.  It is quite possible that my ancestors from Ireland in the 1800s were part of this ethnic group.  If so, I am in honored company, as others identified as "Scot-Irish" include the likes of Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the US, Gen. George S. Patton and other famous personalities.  

It took a DNA test and a few years to confirm what my mother told me.  But it's nice to have a possible confirmation of what I thought might be true for some time.  

Now to learn more about this special heritage.....

 

 
 


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