Quote Originally Posted by djweso
The other reason is that there was an article I read sometime ago that talked about the immigrants to the US and the author talked about the fact the becuase both the scotch and irish immigrants were in similar financial situations the ended up living and working together and eventually enter marrying. So alot of the blood got mixed up. Although this wasn't the focus of the article. And no I don't have it anymore unfortunately.
This has generally been debunked (although many people still believe it) -- the Lowland Scots who settled in Ulster did not intermingle with their Irish neighbours on the grounds of religion. By the time the "famine Irish" arrived in the US, the Scots-Irish and Scots were fairly well established and settled in American society, and had the advantage of being Protestant. Also, after the Revolution, immigration from Scotland slowed, as many Highland Scots instead went to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Indeed, many Highland Scots who favoured the Jacobite cause back home were loyalists in the Revolution.

Duane Meyer's "The Highland Scots of North Carolina", Celeste Ray's "Highland Heritage", James Leyburn's "The Scotch-Irish: a Social History" and James Hunter's "A Dance called America" do a very good job of explaning Scottish and Scots-Irish influences on America and Canada.

Cheers,

Todd