May You Have Thumping Luck and Fat Weans

The Scots have contributed generously to our language. Do you recognize any of these Scottish Proverbs?

• All’s well that ends well
• Beggars can’t be choosers
• The early bird catches the worm
• Every dog has its day
• The cure is worse than the disease
• Penny wise and pound foolish
• They that dance must pay the fiddler
• You must crawl before you can walk
• Time and tide will wait for no man
• Forewarned is forearmed
• Fortune favors the brave
• He has a bee in his bonnet
• I have other fish to fry
• It is an ill wind that blows no good
• It’s neither rhyme nor reason
• Let sleeping dogs lie
• Measure twice, cut once
• You are never too old to learn
• Send a thief to catch a thief
• There’s no fool like an old fool
• Take a hair of the dog that bit you
• Birds of a feather flock together
• Confession is good for the soul
• Either prove a man or a mouse
• Beauty is skin deep
• That was then and this is now
• Charity begins at home
• Seeing is believing
• Familiarity breeds contempt
• You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
• A penny saved is a penny earned
• Waste not, want not
• Better to bend than to break
• Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves

And my personal favorite: Twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.

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Scottish Border Clans Map

Click on the map to see a larger image.

Happy Christmas to you all!

“The Ladies from Hell.”

Low res highlight review of the Instrument of War documentary videos.

Book List ~ Scottish History (in no particular order)

For those interested in learning more about the Scots in America and Scottish Genealogy

Scottish Tartans in Full Color by James Grant

Scottish Genealogy by Bruce Durie

Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast) by Theda Perdue

Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East (Real Voices, Real History Series) by Vicki Rozema (Author)

Voices from the Trail of Tears (Real Voices, Real History Series) by Vicki Rozema (Editor)

The Ancient Celts by Barry W. Cunliffe

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland by Bryan Sykes

Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature (Celtic Studies Publications) by Barry Cunliffe (Editor), John T Koch (Editor)

The Way We Lived in North Carolina (Published in Association with the Office of Archives and His) by Joe A. (ed.) Mobley (Author), et al.

The Knights Templar and Scotland by Robert Ferguson

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor

Scots In Georgia and the Deep South, 1733-1845 by David Dobson

The Cherokee Nation: A History by Robert J. Conley (Author)

Glencoe and the Indians by James Hunter

Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia (Melungeons: History, Culture, Ethnicity, & Literature) by Wayne Winkler

Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America by Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman

When Scotland Was Jewish: DNA Evidence, Archeology, Analysis of Migrations, and Public and Family Records Show Twelfth Century Semitic Roots by Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman

Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples: Thirty Generations of a Montana Family by James Hunter

Eastern Band Of Cherokees: 1819-1900 by John R. Finger

The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians through the Era of Revolution by M. Thomas Hatley

Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South by R. Celeste Ray

Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917 by Ferenc Morton Szasz

Cherokee: People of the Written Word by Wayne Youngblood

New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (American Moment) by Colin G. Calloway

We’re Indians Sure Enough : The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States by Michael Steven Newton

The Highland Scots of North Carolina, 1732-1776 by Duane Meyer (Author)

Chasing The Frontier: Scots-Irish in Early America by Larry J. Hoefling

Scottish Highlanders and Native Americans: Indigenous Education in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World by Margaret Szasz

The Art of Scottish-American Cooking by Kay Shaw Nelson

Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Nation (International Library of Sociology) by David McCrone

Scotland: The Story of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson

Scotland: The Shaping of a Nation by Gordon Donaldson

Scots & Scotch Irish in Connecticut: A history (The Peoples of Connecticut multicultural ethnic heritage studies series) by Frank A Stone

Highlander in the French-Indian War: 1756-67 (Warrior) by Ian M. McCulloch

How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier by Stuart Banner

James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees by James Mooney

Scotland’s Empire and the Shaping of the Americas, 1600-1815 by T. M. Devine

America’s Founding Secret: What the Scottish Enlightenment Taught Our Founding Fathers by Robert W. Galvin

The Scottish 100: Portraits of History’s Most Influential Scots by Duncan A. Bruce

Women of the Frontier (Scots-Irish Chronicles) by Billy Kennedy (Author)

The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee (Scots-Irish Chronicles) by Billy Kennedy

The People with No Name: Ireland’s Ulster Scots, America’s Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764. by Patrick Griffin

Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762 by Robert W. Ramsey (Author)

How the Scots Made America by Michael Fry

The Surnames of Scotland by George F. Black

White People, Indians and Highlanders by Colin G. Calloway

The Scotch-Irish by James G. Leyburn

Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer

New England Court Records by Diane Rapaport

Born Fighting by by James Webb

The Scottish Invention of American Democracy and Human Rights by Klieforth and Munro

The Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser

Cherokee Proud (Cherokee Genealogy) by Dr. Tony McClure

1603 by Christopher Lee

The Clans of Scotland by Micheil MacDonald

The Birlinn Companion to Scottish History by Ian Donnachie and George Hewitt

Scottish Roots by Alwyn James

Damn Rebel Bitches by Maggie Craig

The Scottish Regiments by Diana M. Henderson

What’s for dinner?

Haggis, neeps and tatties

Scottish Ancestry in the USA

According to the 2000 USA Federal Census, Maine had the highest percentage of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descendants in the country.

Right about now you may be thinking that I’m full of hot air. Or something. But no, the numbers clearly back up my statement. The Southeast states just had a better PR machine. Take a look at this table and see for your own self:

2000_Federal_USA_Census_Scots_Percentage    (this will open as a PDF)

A Few New Hampshire Scottish Placenames (Table)

(New Hampshire has had Scottish and Ulster Scottish people since at least 1718.)

NH Scottish Placenames   (will download as a PDF)

Gaelic Steak

Red meat with a whisky glaze. Perfect.

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 oz butter
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (optional)
• 4 beef fillet steaks
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• salt and black pepper
• 2-4 tablespoons whisky
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Heat oil and butter in a frying pan. Add onion and fry gently till soft and just beginning to brown. Rub steaks with cut surface of garlic and season well. Fry steaks for 2-5 minutes each side depending whether rare or well done is preferred.

Pour on whisky (flame if desired) and add parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Turn steaks over once and spoon juices over for about 1/2 minute. Serve immediately with selected vegetables and salads.

This recipe is especially successful when the cook enjoys a dram or two while preparing the meal.