What We Get from Our Scottish Roots

Recently I've been reading up on Scotland and Scottish roots in America to better understand the people that we came from, as I know we do have Scottish ancestors. Until today, I hadn't come across anything that I felt was worth sharing. Today, however, I found some awesome stuff in a book called "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" by Arthur Herman. The first half of the book is about Scots in Scotland, and the second half (which I started today) is about the Scots in America. I'm going to use several direct quotations from the book, because they are just put so well.

"They said ... 'thar' for 'there,' 'critter' for 'creature,' 'nekkid' for 'naked' ... and 'young-uns' for 'young ones.' They were always 'fixin' ' to do something...The language was also shamelessly intimate and earthy: passersby were addressed as 'honey' ...

"Ulster Scots [the Scots Irish] were quick-tempered, inclined to hard work followed by bouts of boiserous leisure and heavy drinking ..., and easy to provoke into fighting. The term used to describe them was rednecks, a Scots border term meaning Presbyterians."

I have to say, I have been teased about saying "nekkid" instead of "nay-kid" like people in other parts of the US. I've also noticed a divide between my family in the South--friendly, gregarious, opinionated, fond of sports--and my family in the North--also friendly but more reserved, a bit geeky, leaning more to technical issues. My dad's side (Northern side) has a lot less heritage from the Scots.

Herman also describes the intense religious zeal that was typical of the Scots (note the previous reference to Presbyterians), and which is also typical of Southerners, as we know.

Some of the characteristics I read about also reminded me of things I've learned about J.O. Thompson: He was zealous about the Gospel and he was "inclined to hard work" and was a little rough around the edges, as this post by Laura shows.

Thompson, Campbell, Dunn, Peebles, Alexander, Wallace--all Scottish surnames. Connell and Dunn are either Irish or Scottish surnames. These are all names from our family tree.

**Edit: the second half of How the Scots Invented the Modern World only has a few chapters about the Scots in the United States. There are many chapters about Scots in Scotland and England, as well.