What do you say when Americans tell you they are Scottish?

[scotinmass 588]

The people who manage to correctly guess my accent as Scottish (they usually think it's Irish!) always tell me they are Scottish too. They tell me there great x 14 grandmother was called Mc this or Mac that. It's not just Scots though. I am constantly being told by people I work with that they are Italian or Irish and one day they plan on visiting europe to see where they came from. I find it highly amusing. My wife Diane tells me that because Americans are a mongrel race it is very important to them to have some sense of identity and knowing where they came from. I don't quite understand that. If you are born in the US and your parents were and their parents were then you are American. I was born in Scotland as were my parents and their parents and their parents. I don't care where anyone came from before that. That's more than enough to make me Scottish.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The people who manage to correctly guess my accent as Scottish (they usually think it's Irish!) always tell me they are Scottish too. They tell me there great x 14 grandmother was called Mc this or Mac that. It's not just Scots though. I am constantly being told by people I work with that they are Italian or Irish and one day they plan on visiting europe to see where they came from. I find it highly amusing. My wife Diane tells me that because Americans are a mongrel race it is very important to them to have some sense of identity and knowing where they came from. I don't quite understand that. If you are born in the US and your parents were and their parents were then you are American. I was born in Scotland as were my parents and their parents and their parents. I don't care where anyone came from before that. That's more than enough to make me Scottish.

Your wife is correct. For some Americans it's nice being able to identify with your ancestors that immigrated over here from Europe or wherever. The US hasn't been around nearly as long as Scotland, and when Americans were fighting in WW2 we still had enough first and second generation immigrants here that the army was full of people being able to translate German, Italian, French, Polish, etc.. The farm my parents purchased was one from a retired couple that had immigrated from Holland as most of our town was first, second, and third generation immigrants from Holland, Norway, Denmark, and Germany.

Of course Americans are "American", but it's nice to be able to identify from parents and grandparents where your ancestors came from. On my moms side they came from Norway to the Orkney Islands, to Inverness and to Canada and eventually the US. When me and my siblings pass down whatever's left from what my great great grandparents brought with them from Scotland we can tell our children how they came to be and why we had them in the first place.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Why_Me

[Darnell 8,478]

If you want to meet a lot of people who have never seen Scotland and have a romanticized idea of what it is like you need to go to the NH (or your local) "Highland Games". My husband and I heard a lot of people claiming to be Scottish while dressed in a kilt and full regalia. Meanwhile he really is Scottish through and through and wearing jeans and a Red Sox shirt. He tried to explain to the guys in the clan Gunn booth about what it is really like but they were so not interested. In thier minds Scotland exists as it does in Braveheart and to hear otherwise spoils thier fantasy. We heard a lot of misinformation. The best was a kid asking what Irn Bru was and having the vendor tell him it's a Scottish energy drink! lol

I really don't believe people mean to be insulting or offensive. Being american, unless you are Native American, means being the product of immigrants so we are a mix of many countries and families tend to keep and pass down recipes, traditions, names, stories to keep those ties to the places they left. I grew up in the US and my family emigrated several generations back but since my great-grandmother,grandparents and parents reminded us from where we are descended I've always felt an affinity for those places even before I set foot there. I think thinks like ancestry.com and Who do you think you are have got a lot of people interested in geneaology. Instead of feeling annoyed maybe you should feel flattered that people relate so much and wish they really were Scottish.

ya, it's a big difference -

those families scattered/removed after the '45 into the big Diaspora,

vs the ones who stayed there after the '45.

The Brits won, on that one, alas.

350+ years later, they still won...

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

As someone born and bred in the North of Ireland and from a working class Catholic family I'm going to respectfully disagree with you on that and hope not to derail the thread into a political discussion.

- Liam

Thank you, Liam.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I'l leave off with the pseudo protestant Irish thing, although I will say you can't stick a Scot in Ireland and call them Irish.

I'm guessing you little to nothing about Ulster, so here's a little larnin' for ya.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Scots_people

The Ulster Scots (Ulster-Scots: tha Ulstèr-Scotch [fowk])[2] are an ethnic group in Ireland, descended from Lowland Scots and English from the border of those two countries, many from the "Border Reivers" culture. These people first began to occupy Ireland in large numbers with the Plantation of Ulster, a planned process of colonisation which took place under the auspices of James VI of Scotland and I of England on land confiscated from the Irish nobility, most extensively in the Province of Ulster. The term "Ulster-Scots" refers to both these colonists of the 17th century and, less commonly, to the Gallowglass who began to arrive from what is now northwest Scotland centuries earlier.

Ulster-Scots were largely descended from colonists from Galloway, Ayrshire, and the Scottish Borders Country, although some descend from people further north in the Scottish Lowlands and the Highlands. Ulster-Scots emigrated in significant numbers to the United States and all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa — and to a lesser extent to Argentina and Chile in South America. Scotch-Irish is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who later emigrated to what is now the United States; "Scots-Irish" is a more recent form of the American term,[3] and is not to be confused with Irish-Scots, i.e., recent Irish immigrants to Scotland.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Damn, I guess that means we have to start considering Bono British and we don't want that.

[Fandango 1,439]

America has no national unifying culture, so it's only natural that people hold on to their individual ones.

For instance, I am 3rd generation Italian. Yes, I am first and foremost an American, but my culture is Italian based. I cook the regional foods, we celebrate with Italian traditions. I have been to Italy. I grew up with my grandparents playing Jimmy Roselli, and I can curse like a sailor in Italian . I remeember my great grandparents speaking in horrible broken english. Occasionally, my hair is poofed, although nowhere near Snooki-esate stature.

And for the record, I loathe Jersey shore, although my ex husband was almost a carbon copy of that situation guy, lol.

Of course, these things are the American bastardized versions. While I'm sure the Italian-Americans have customs and traditions that have deviated from the 'homeland', they are still ours. It doesn't mean I'd rather be full blown Italian vs American. On the contrary: I am a very proud American.

America is not a 'melting pot' as many say...we don't all become this homogenized being. We're more like a tossed salad...everything blends together perfectly, but we each keep what makes us all unique. And I don't really see any problem with anyone wanting to proclaim a bit of love, or identify a culture from which his/ her family originally hailed from.

[Jessa & Liam 11]

Thank you, Liam.

No problem. I was brought up not to be sectarian by my parents so I have a very low tolerance for it.

[Darnell 8,478]

Scots-Irish were a different 'bit', after the Diaspora. Basically, when Britain was settling into Ireland, free lands were given to ANYONE who would move in, swear allegiance to the Church of England. After being beat to sh|te during the '45, their own lands grabbed, this was a good deal as it meant a man could keep his family together, not take up any indentured-servitude in Canada, US or Australia.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Scots-Irish were a different 'bit', after the Diaspora. Basically, when Britain was settling into Ireland, free lands were given to ANYONE who would move in, swear allegiance to the Church of England. After being beat to sh|te during the '45, their own lands grabbed, this was a good deal as it meant a man could keep his family together, not take up any indentured-servitude in Canada, US or Australia.

I'm not sure what you mean by "different". After all, Ireland was not divided at the time, and the settlements were indeed "Irish". The landed Scottish gentry had not necessarily seen their lands in Scotland "grabbed". Oftentimes their lands in Ireland were just an extension of their geographic power base in Scotland. At any rate over the course of time these Scotsmen became Irish, or "Ulstermen" as many including my husband consider themselves.

And btw the term Scots-Irish is a modern tern, not in use at all for any time after the Battle of Culloden.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Rebecca Jo

[ScottnIzabela 25]

so i have been visiting a favorite hangout and doing our immigration paperwork and looking up stuff for our situation,and found a man in a kilt with his family at the next table. he did not sit down the whole time.#######?

anyways love this thread --funnay stuff.

i always say my people came from scotland and england. that is about all i know of tracing them back and it is noo bigger concern to me. but damn people are sometimes overzealous in where they be from here.

i am from Alabama and colorado people who have been here since birth are all proud about it. when i came here it was the rudest most arrogant place i ever saw. the nicest and most real people i have met here in colorado have all been from new york.

[DiZZyLoX 114]

It's my understanding that this sort of thing occurs anywhere people born of several different ancestries live in one place...not just America. Sure, America is a country full of ancestry motley crueness but I just think it's to be expected. You're immigrating from countries where the entire nation is broadly one culture to a country of immigrants merging several different cultures to create an "American culture". Your children and descendants will identify themselves based on who you are today, to help explain who they are...I can see why that notion can be lost on anyone coming into America, because you've not experienced it unless you've lived somewhere like America where you interact daily with so many different (albeit varying generations removed) cultures in one place.

Having said that, I couldnt trace my ancestry past Georgia due to slavery, but I would love to know which country my family came from...the way they lived, what the family line went through to endure so I could even be here today. There is a real sense of loss being in a country where for the most part everyone knows where their ancestors hailed from, and you haven't a clue...