Mine is my given name, one of my grandparent's names, descended from a Thomas Gilmore, born in Scotland in 1734, and emigrated to Cumberland County, North Carolina.

His son, James Gilmore, born there in 1755, was somewhat unusual in that unlike most Cumberland County Scots who were Loyalists, he sided with the rebels/patriots/Americans, and became a sergeant in the Continental army. He thus became part of a tradition of unruliness. I do not have even one ancestor who, ever since they came to America before the Revolution, bore arms in defense of his country. When they did go to war, it was to overthrow the government, in the Revolution and the Civil War. After the war James won government land in the lottery and moved to middle Georgia, where his descendants still flourish.