Quote Originally Posted by Joshua View Post
Very common, in most of the Appalacians as well. I would say that at least 25% of my father's ancestry is German, the remainder of which being a smattering of mostly Welsh, some Scottish, and a teeny bit of Cherokee. His people hailed from Southeastern Ohio and Western NC. My mothers side of the family hasn't turned up any German roots, however they hailed from the same areas, Scottish, Irish, and English (in that order).
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The Ulster Scots and Pennsylvania Germans both followed the Great Wagon Road down the Appalachians into Western Virginia and the Carolina backcountry before pushing West through the Cumberland Gap (thanks to Dr. Walker and Daniel Boone) into Kentucky and Tennessee. Others pushed west from Pennsylvania directly into the Ohio Country; some of my Scottish ancestors followed this route and ended up in a colony of Scots in SE Iowa in the 1840s, where they intermarried with German immigrants.

T.