Some of my ancestors are quintessential Scots-Irish including descendants of a Presbyterian minister in Northern Ireland (Adair) who sent his sons back to Edinburgh to be educated. This group called Scots-Irish is very well documented and often discussed. But there are two surnames in my tree (McElmurry and McCollum) which appear in their Irish Gaelic versions (Mac Giolla Mhuire and Mac Gil Colum) in the Annals of the Four Masters and date prior to 1200 AD in Ulster. Folks trying to sell tartans will happily tell you these names are Scottish but things are not quite that simple. By 1860 the McElmurrys in Arkansas are Methodist but they immigrated about 1750 and spent several generations at the very edge of the frontier. It is probably safe to assume if they were in Ulster in the 13th century they were Catholic at that time. It is commonly said that most Irish in America are Catholic and that may be true of those who came to the cities during the potato famines, but what about the Ulster Irish who worked side by side the Scottish and English on the plantations for over 100 years with Presbyterian and Methodist and Anglican missionaries and women tempting them away from Rome? And did all the Ulster Irish stay behind in Ulster when the Scots (and probably some English) left for cheap land and religious freedom? I believe there is a group of Ulster Irish that came to America mixed in with the Scots-Irish and the McElmurrys may belong to that group. Whether they gave up Catholicism in Ulster or on the frontier I do not know.

So I guess that is a long way to say yes and no, I am talking about the Ulster Scots and the Protestant Ulster Irish that immigrated with them prior to the revolution. This second group is rarely discussed but I believe they did exist although perhaps in small numbers.