Alabama has many immigrants from Scotland – here is where they came from [maps & pics]
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i just love your pages .I am a McPherson who very much has Alabama connections .I also have a connection on my paternal grandmother ‘s familyfrom the Limestone (Athens) county area.
Pamela, it’s likely we’re distantly related. My maternal line is McPherson from Alabama, the family well known for the pottery they made.
My maternal grandmother’s mother was a “Cameron” raised in the Scottish area in Barbour County called “Inverness” near Clayton!!
Great article. Thanks for posting.
And Ireland too! Kerr and Elliott in my tree in Limestone Co..
Gilchrist family, near St. Andrews, Barbour County and near Greenville
McNeil(l)s via a land grant in “the Carolina’s” to Archibald McNeil and then to China Grove in south Montgomery Co, Alabama.
share with JD Stewart and all Stewart kin
My paternal grandfather was Scot.
The Welsh had a part in early Alabama as well.
Not only Scotland but the Welsh too
Bet they didn’t know WHAT to think of the heat and humidity…
Someone’s been watching “Outlander”.
My grandfather Woodie Madison Hudson’s mother, a Stuart ,claims we are descendents of Mary Queen of Scots. GF Woodie’s first wife died and my grandmother, Isabelle A. Lankfort Hudson is his second wife. We may be distant relatives. They mostly lived in Wagarville, Alabama and were perhaps both born there and are buried there.
There were lowland Scots among the “Argyll Colony / Cumberland North Carolina” group, also. It was not exclusively highlanders.
I just want to know where my ancestors came from. Some say Scotland and others say Ireland. McCarley, I say Scotland.
Ancestry.com offers DNA testing that could help with that.
Thank you Bonita.
Joan, all the names have become Americanized, so it’s difficult to tell, but the Mc names are usually Irish, while Mac’s are usually Scottish. My husband has McGuirk ancestors whose surname is Irish, but the same maternal line ( Rogers) is Scottish.
I enjoyed reading the article. Thank you for posting.
Tilt my kilt to this!
Nice article! My Scots family came from Ayrshire and surrounding areas in the late 1800s. They were coal miners in Pratt City (Birmingham), AL.
Aye! We’ve traced my ancestors back to Scotland. Visited this past summer and saw Houston Castle. Sadly, it’s been divided into apartments, but it still stands. Also, the Scottish people reminded me of fellow Alabamians, as they were so very social, kind and friendly. I hope to return some day.
Aye!
Reba Brannan
Irene Cataldo… Sweet home Alabama!
Many Scots went first to Ireland and then to America. They are the Scotch-Irish. My father’s family has ancestors who came to this country from Scotland via Ireland.
The Armstrong Family
a good thing the far right republlicans was’ent around….or they may have been sent back to scotland….foreigners wearing skirts who neded them cetainly not the native americans
Thank you for that invaluable contribution to this article.
Thanks for the article! I know my story. My Fathers family were MacGregors then changed their name to McGhee to avoid being killed. My Mothers family were from the borders of Scotland. Both families settled in Alabama where I’m from.
The British cleaned out the jails
Very interesting!
We have Wallace as a surname on the maternal side of our family and Mitchell on the paternal side. Here in northwest Alabama, and in the South in general, many of us follow the Scottish tradition of using the mother’s clan/family surname as first names for our sons, and even our daughters, to continue to keep the name in our family lineage. My three sisters and I kept our family surname, May, as our middle names once we married.
Lots of Welsh in Sand Mountain area. Owen was my father’s last name. Sky blue eyes and jet black hair.
Lillian Wise
We’re the highland Scots not mostly deported after the American Revolution?
My McDaniel line came here in 1715 during the 1st Highland Clerances
I have a McDaniel-Mohagn (This is spelled many ways) line from Marshall, Cherokee, DeKalb counties in Alabama. My grandparents lived on Sand Mountain. This came from my grandmother’s line. My grandfather had the last name Childers.
Must be why I love the OUTLANDER series! 🙂
I know the Grants moved there. 🙂
I connect to John Wesley Hendrix in Alabama to Mississippi to Arkansas.
Visited Scotland last year. The ppl were so friendly and kind. Also, the country is gorgeous to boot. Reminded me a lot of Sweet Home Alabama.
proud to be one
My great great grandparents married in Tallapossa County, Alabama. His name was James Mormon, born 1801,and hers Millie West, born 1808. James was born in NC to James Mormon and Agnes Jaweccer Split Log. I have linked her to Indians, Cornstalk, Pasmere Carpenter.
I cannot connect to the West line other than her mother’s names of Mary West.
Reddock Davenport
Budd McLean
I loved this article, very informative. I too am Scots-Irish from both sides of my family. This article was very good. Thanks to those who work on these.
Tracy Stuart
There is an Old Scotland community near Beatrice in Monroe county.
This article not a history of the Scots in Alabama it is a rehash of Culloden. It would have been interesting as well if you had expanded on the Indians trials and how the McGillvary’s and others protected the Indians, by encouraging them to deed their land making it possible for them to stay in Alabama because they legally owned their land. It would have been informative if you had followed the families history and not a long dead battle for the highlands except as a footnote. Of course if the book did, that would be nice to know.
[…] (continued from Alabama had a large population of settlers from Scotland in its founding days) […]
Was told my ancestors either came from Ireland or Scotland .
Gordon
So that’s why we have so much Scandinavian blood. Gordon, Stewart, McDonald
These are SCOTTISH names-not Scandinavian.
And the article explains the Scandinavian connection
Cole Jones
Stewart
[…] Source: Alabama has many immigrants from Scotland – here is where they came from [maps & pics] | Alaba… […]
ha ha I’m waiting for a good breeze..
Ferguson
Stewart blood runs in these veins.
Stephanie
I saved this, since my Mitchell line began in Scotland, and then went to Ireland, from which they came to America.
Kimberly Gaston Rivera
We just call it Nova Scotia. New England is close by and so was New London and New Madrid. Mobile and Washington Counties and around.
My forefathers came here from Scotland in the 1600’s. Growing up I never dreamed that Drinkard was a name from Scotland I enjoyed reading this.
McDougal
My Greatgreatgreatgrandfather came fron Scotland .
Isle of Mull- McLean my line but also many other spellings.
I’m sorry about the misspellings but when an article is transcribed (as indicated at the top of the article), it is always transcribed exactly as originally written, including misspelled words.
Alba gu brath …
McCrary and McArnold descendent, Jackson Country, AL
FYI Scotch I s a drink. People from Scotland are Scots
Thank you. This s a common mistake, just like calling Edinburgh, Edinburg.
Where does “Scottish”, as in Scottish Rite, come from?
Stewart… (Janice Stewart) My 2nd greatgrandfather Lanier Stewart was born in Craven Co, NC. Lanier and his family migrated to Pike Co AL where my greatgrandfather, grandfather and father were born. Lanier’s father was born in Scotland.
Paula Parmer Smith
Daniel Moss
Larry Laird
Dinne, Lucy, Ronald, Charles…you need to read this
I, too, enjoy reading your blog. My family is a mixture of Scots, probably some Irish, and also Creek Indian. I have been studying the Scots in Scotland and in America for two or three years especially. We live in Florida, but have owned a tree farm in Alabama for thirty years. I have been tracing mine and my husband”s family lines for at least that long. My first novel WAITING DEER, which I published in May, 2016, deals with the Scots, African Americans, and Creek Indians who migrated to northwest Florida after the Civil War. Its sequel, titled CLEVE, I hope to have finished in a few months.
Fearn Abbey in Scotland is part of my family heritage.
Dunmaglass, Inverness, Scotland, Mcgillvary Clan
Was born and raised in Alabama Abercrombie is my mothers’ maiden name,my ancestors came from Fife Scotland
My ancestors of Scot or Scot-Irish lineage include the Kilgo’s & McGathys of Calhoun County. My wife’s ancestors were the McCain’s who came to what is now Clay County in the early 1830’s. The McCains migrated from the Carolina’s to Marion County, Tennessee, and then due south to what was then eastern Talladega County after the forced removal of the Creeks. They settled near a Creek village named “Old Town” near what is now Lineville, Alabama. She has a copy of an original land patent signed by Martin Van Buren.
Archibald McNeil was my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. I remember hearing that he was executed outside the Tower of London, which execution place I visited. My cousin, retired officer in air force intelligence, extensively researched on location this thread of family genealogy through many centuries.
When I googled A.M.`s name, it was linked to this website with a quote regarding passing of inheritance, but I was unable to find him named in this portion here reproduced.