New here and fellow scotsman from SoCalifornia

[tripleblessed]

Personally, I would describe you as an American with Scottish roots.

I usually say I was assembled in South Georgia from Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Cornish, and English parts. And one Portuguese Jew. I am the 11th
generation in this country, several ancestors arriving from the British Isles by 1650. Only one, one of my great-grandmothers, arrived after 1776.
She was an orphan, arriving in 1860 at 14, with a 10 year old brother, thrown out of Ireland for having no living father. Thrown off the train in
western Pennsylvania to look for work as a maid. She was not allowed to keep her little brother with her, but was told, "There'll be work for him
at the end of the line." Many arrived in indenture for various reasons. At least one returned to the Isles when the argument started, but returned
after it was settled and bought back the same farm he sold to get back home to Skye.

My corner of southeast Georgia has very deep Scottish roots, as there was no money for troops to keep the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe spoke
with a couple of Highland lairds he knew who lived in London, saying he could not pay soldiers, but anyone willing to come and fight could have land .
Somewhere above 200 Scots settled in what is now Darien, Georgia, having told their kin, "Who cares if we die? Our children and grandchildren
will OWN LAND." Half died in the effort; another 200 or so arrived two years later, with the same result. They defeated the Spanish, securing the
border. Their children prospered on the land they received, and all across South Georgia the towns and the family cemeteries are filled with Scottish
surnames. My Scots lines came in through Virginia and North Carolina, leaving behind played out farms and moving on to fresh starts.

At least, that's how I heard it. For me personally, the stories are more revealing than what I was taught in school, though it's sometimes tricky
extracting what actually happened from the texts and stories. Census, tax, and military service records have been most helpful.