Connell Migration

In the past five years or so, some of our family members involved in family history work learned that there were Connells in Texas that pronounced the last name the same way we do! With a little bit of searching, they found out that we're related.

Turns out that when Granddaddy JC's ancestors moved to South Carolina, they were planning on going much further west. The Connell clan (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) was moving from North Carolina and planned on settling somewhere in the West. By the time they reached Lancaster, SC, some of the family got sick and had to stop. The rest of the family kept going while the recuperating ones planned on catching up later. However, the family in Lancaster found a great deal on land right there in South Carolina and decided to stay. I imagine they had also made friends during their extended stay in Lancaster.

When I first heard this story, I imagined it taking place around oh, say 1850. However, the earliest Connell ancestor in South Carolina was born there in 1828, and he had siblings born there as early as 1810. I'm guessing that's about the time the migration took place. It makes sense, because the Louisiana purchase took place in 1803. The Connells were probably thinking to take advantage of all the empty land there.

Before the move, the Connells lived in North Carolina for at least one generation. Before that, they lived in Virginia, all the way back to somewhere between 1625 and 1700. According to the information on Family Search, the next ancestor back came from Renfrewshire, Scotland. Since the surname Connell is usually traced back to Ireland, I wonder if we pronounce our name differently because our ancestors were from Scotland, instead of Ireland? Put your opinion in the comments!

I haven't reviewed any of the sources for the information on this page, so please forgive me if any is incorrect.

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.