Do you have Scottish Roots?

Many People worldwide will find discover they have Scottish Roots. The Scots are scattered worldwide mainly due to trading links and the Highland Clearances.

Other push factors were the promise of riches in new lands and famine in Scotland and Ireland. Also, it was common in the 1800s to banish criminals to the Australia and Tasmania, then called Van Diemans land. In the course of our research we have found that even for a petty crime such as stealing a loave of bread, a man could be banished to Van Diemens land, often leaving a wife and children behind, never to return.

In the US 2000 Census, 4.8 million Americans reported they had Scottish ancestry. Given Scotland's population (just over 5 million), there are almost as many Scottish Americans as there are native Scots living in their home country. Between 1717 and 1775 some 250,000 Ulster Scots emigrated to the American colonies. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million descendants of the Scots-Irish migration now living in the U.S.

In Canada the 2001 Census states that the Scottish-Canadian community accounts for 4,719,850 people. Scottish-Canadians are the 3rd biggest ethnic group in Canada.

There is no general register for this mass emmigration however much information can be found by researching passenger ship records. Many of these records have been lost over the years but they do remain a valuable resource and one that we investigate as a background to completing your family tree to provide a complete history of your ancestors.

The first mass emigration was in 1792 when many of the people were forced to leave the land that had been farmed by them and their forefathers to go to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.