The Scots Who Left

[Peter Crowe]

Irish Jack thank you for giving us this link.
One of the great things about this forum is the many things you get to learn that various members bring to the table.

I see many of the points brought out by the author of the 3 articles in strong evidence here on the forum.

One thing that intrigues me is this:Lets say the last one of your relatives to actually be Scottish came over to America,say,150 years ago,and in the mean time all contact with any distant relatives who remain in Scotland has been lost.Reasonably between that time and then there has been 4 to 5 generations to grow up and get married,then have children.So every time there is a marriage,unless one marries a Scot or the close kin of one,another culture is brought to bear on your family makeup.

By the time we get to our time,there are possibly at least 7(aprox) different cultural backgrounds besides Scottish that have brought their own unique and very interesting and valid flavours to your family background,give or take.
What I'm posing here is not claiming to be geneologicly(?) correct,just building a point.

My question is,what is it that makes one decide to cleave to Scotland as some sort of ancestral mecca,when to be fair you could just as likely choose one of the other cultures from one of your forefathers that is actually much nearer in time to you than an 1850's Scot.
Or are there some out there who perhaps strap on a kilt for a highland games one week,then tug a white smock over their head and tie bands around thier upper calves over white pants and go dance round a may pole at a sort of 'remember merry england' festival the next weekend?Are you folk that celebrate what is long past cultural histories, as interested in giving equal creedence to all of the cultures that have gathered to your backgrounds?
Or does Scotland just sort of bowl the others over like ninepins?I just feel it's an interesting topic and wondered if the spiritual connection to Scotalnd can also be felt with the other backgrounds that you must bump past to reach back that far into history.

Living here, I have often wondered about this too. My observations are that there are as many answers as there are people to be honest. Many Americans do celebrate all their different heritages in a compartmentalised way, some in a way that blends them.

One guy I worked with (an extremely nice bloke and a good man) has the most obvious of Irish names, said he knew his background was Irish but he'd visited Ireland as part of his previous job, and discovered he felt no emotional connection whatsoever, and was therefore just an American, as that was what he identified with. (Given my view that my antecedent family within living memory are much dearer to me than some far off ancestors whose lives were far removed from mine I got his point entirely.)

I also have met some who favour the ethnic heritage of the parent they felt closest too, or of a much beloved grandparent. In this regard America truly is a melting pot.

I think for those of us from Scotland (or Ireland) who attend heritage based events in North America, it is a useful reminder that what is being celebrated is a Scottish (or Irish) heritage transmitted down through the diaspora group however loosely defined, and from it's own cultural perspective. To compare it to a similar event in our homeland (Scotland or Ireland) misses the point.