Why Scottish and American People See History Differently?
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- Scottish people and American people seem to look for different things when talking about Scottish history. Are Americans right? Are Scots right? From Kenmore on the banks of Loch Tay Scottish history tour guide Bruce Fummey compares the two.
See video The Death of Robert teh Bruce HERE • DEATH OF ROBERT THE BR...
This may also be British and American, or Scottish and Canadian, so let's not get too competitive
Kenmore on the banks of Loch Tay is one of my favourite places. What better location to talk about how Scots and Americans see history
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Scotland History Tours is here for people who want to learn about Scottish history and get ideas for Scottish history tours. I try to make videos which tell you tales from Scotland's past and give you information about key dates in Scottish history and historical places to visit in Scotland. Not all videos are tales from Scotland's history, some of them are about men from Scotland's past or women from Scotland's past. Basically the people who made Scotland. From April 2020 onward I've tried to give ideas for historic days out in Scotland. Essentially these are days out in Scotland for adults who are interested in historical places to visit in Scotland.
As a Scottish history tour guide people ask: Help me plan a Scottish holiday, or help me plan a Scottish vacation of your from the US. So I've tried to give a bit of history, but some places of interest in Scotland as well.
"A level of inbreeding thats not even been achieved in Fife".
Ohhh you killed me with that one.
😜
Same. Haven't been to Fife in a while though.
I live in West Fife and I can't really disagree, as many folks look a wee bit odd and sour-faced to boot. Hey, it's well located to get to other fine places!
Can't be as bad as Norfolk, or it be called sixfe.
Here in the US, it'd be someone from Appalachia. But then a lot of us "hillbillies" are of Scottish descent so maybe Fife isn't so far off genetically. :D
I think,being an American, from my own perspective, we are so interested in our ancestry because being American isn't an ethnicity or a people with a long shared history but rather more of a concept. We are a nation comprised of many different people and cultures, but one thing we all have in common is our ancestors all came from somewhere else ( except native Americans), and when they became American they didn't lose their identity from the place they came. They could be an American Scot, for example. Instead of total assimilation immigrant would add their fathers story to that of america as a whole. I think that's partly why we are so fixed with our ancestors.
Native Americans came from Asia but they lost that history.
Excellent point, fellow Yank.
@@chillbill5773 As a son of Dixieland call me a yank one more again.
@@timesthree5757 we can go no true scottsman here, because I am more southern than you, yank.
@@chillbill5773 how can you are you from Arkansas. Then you can't be more southern then me.
I’m an Englishman. I have no idea why I’ve been recommended this video. However, it’s very entertaining and I enjoyed it immensely.
Henceforth I am claiming it for myself and my people, as is our historical “right”.
On a more serious note, I shall be watching more of your videos.
Same here. Not even sure why I hit the link, I'm not even especially into history. But that was a very entertaining video with a very engaging presenter.
Forza italia
By posting a message you have become Scottish, sorry about that.
technically speaking britain is a principality of scotland because the last non germanic royal family of britain was the stuarts who happened to be the scottish royal family
@@evant4739 Now, that would be true, but what happened was the two countries remained separate for a few decades before a law was signed by both “The Act of Union”. This, in practice, made England the overlord. So while the Scots did technically take over England, England decided that wasn’t happening. Shame really, this island shall never be a truly unified place.
I'm an American. My father's ancestors are Scots, and I have been researching family history a bit, but I still have a lot to learn about them. I wish they had left some diaries or something. I was fortunate to have visited Scotland about 15 years ago and get a little feel for the land. It is nice to know where we came from. 🏴 😃 ♥️
I think you nailed it. As an Aussie myself, Im just looking for my links to Scotland and part of that includes trying to find what clan the Winnings of Glasgow and Baldernock belonged to. If you're in Scotland, none of that has much meaning. You're Scottish and that's it. You're living it. Us colonial's are seeking a strong tangible connection though, maybe a sense of feeling reassured of our claim to heritage and identity. Maybe because in Australia or Canada or the US we're in a melting pot of cultures. Ultimately, genetic claimants to the Scottish diaspora have a different perspective than Scots who live in Scotland because of a differing need. Does that make sense?
Aye, it does indeed
Makes perfect sense to me, too!
Absolutely.
Yep it does! Being English but residing in Scotland for years and having lived in: Australia, Canada, New Zeland, Wales and Ireland before that and speaking to folk about their heritage, I've often wondered the reasons for people's yearning for identity to particular geographical places. Genetically and culturally all these countries are now as diverse as each other. People had sex with neanderthals in Europe remember. I think there's a certain romance attached to the ( and I hate the term) Celtic countries that folk want to be identified with. America and Ireland being the best example.
Although everyone living abroad with Scottish, Irish and welsh ancestry almost certainly has English ancestors too ( as well as French Dutch etc..., ) you never hear anyone trying to figure out what part of the Black country their past ancestors used to farm.....its a fascinating area of thought identity and to be attached to something old and almost mystical.
I was in Glasgow a few months back with an Australian friend of mine and he was fascinated by some old steps at the docks. They were worn out by hundreds of years of footsteps. There's no such physical connection to human past in new world countries. Only a past to cultures that most have no link too Eg: first nations. Fascinating stuff!
Yes it does make perfect sense to me and anyone that says that you have no claim to something that is in your ancestry is a divot
Aside from the 99% lie, I'd call Red Dot out on "I wasn't even gonna mention it, if not for you!". That's a lie. He was absolutely gonna mention it. Probably buzzing with anticipation as he clicked on the video. He's probably more likely related to Groundskeeper Willie.
😂😂
I wasn't gonna mention it but as his son and nephew I take offence.
Hey!!!! Leave Cousin Willie out of it!! ::ROFLMSO::
Allan MacBain, Associate Genealogist (UK & Europe), Clan MacBean Association.
As far as grandiose claims are concerned, there a few Etonians who exaggerate a wee bit too lol, jk.
Lmao
Fifer here, first time on the channel and it took just 3 minutes to call me inbred
Subscribed
😂 Demonstrates the down to earth humour of Fifers
Bryan i think he’s from around that area himself. I thought it was a clyde accent he had but then he started talking shite about “bairns” most people from around the Clyde area say “waines” or “weanes”.
And i think alot of Scots connect with each other by seeing who can insult the other in the most funny way.
Aww the banter!
Is Fife the Alabama of Scotland I'm guessing?
@@NetherTaker not really. He was just making a joke.
@@happybee7725 The Alabama thing is a joke too
American here: researching genealogy can teach us a lot about “where we came from.”
On the other hand, cross-checking my family tree against DNA evidence leads to an inescapable conclusion: there are a whole bunch of people out there in history who didn’t know who their real fathers were.
Not necessarily. Genetics is not an equal inheritance sort of thing, you pick up different levels of genetic code from different parents based on a variety of factors. Meaning that just because a certain ethnicity or geographic region doesn’t show up as a part of your dna profile doesn’t mean it’s the result of cheating, it very well could be due to small random factors that decide what genes you inherit adding up over generations. Certainly cheating has always existed and is most certainly the reason for some of these discrepancies but is not guaranteed to be the reason.
@@Uncle_Sam76 I agree with you. I was referring more to the many people I’ve come across who have done DNA tests that found out that their siblings are in fact half-siblings and that the person they thought was their biological father, wasn’t.
I'm no related to Robert the Bruce, but I am related to his best mate, "Wee mental Eck wi the gammy leg". What a character
He'll be hobbling in heaven now, proud of his offspring
He’s a legend mate, everybudy Ken’s um
I'm related to Eck the Plec, renowned windae licker
@@ryansco3 and no to forget great tanner of the super lagger
Amazing beard
I think it may be a case that Americans try to use an interesting ancestry to add intrinsic value to themselves, giving them a cause to celebrate the achievements of their ancestors. This seems to play into the individualistic mindset of 'What makes me special?' instead of the communal Scottish mindset of 'What makes us not the English?'
This was going to be my point more-or-less. I think for North Americans it's a point of differentiation from each other, particularly among white communities with long-resident lineages. It's also a heritage that they can indulge in without the political or cultural issues of it being their lived reality. [Sidenote: black North Americans mostly don't have the same luxury.] Being descended from folk who were cleared from Sutherland looks very different viewed from Salt Lake City than from Dunfermline, or from Golspie. Distance makes the heart grow fonder! Anyway, a really interesting video with some excellent points.
@@mattwilliams100 That is an excellent point, and note about the African American community is very poignant. Thanks for that mate, more to think on.
Hmmm, hmmm, that's a toughie, 'What makes us not English'...
You had your chances, ya cudda made Sean Connery king, but Noooooooo...
Too late.
Is the job still open?
@@mattwilliams100 Oh, Black, White, Asian, Native American, it doesn't matter, everybody talks their ancestors up.
Now, let's take this whole reincarnation thing: it's a fact 95% of the human race throughout history have been peasants one way, shape, form or another. Everybody who talks about their previous lives always says something like I was the Earl of Montrose, or I was John Hurt, or something like that.
Nobody ever says I was a peasant in 12th century Pomerania. Nobody says I was a young girl who died of something horrible at five. Nobody says I was the fifth infant of thirteen and only two saw maturity, and I wasn't one of them.
Kicked by cows, raped by mercenaries, worked to death by overseers, captured by pirates, the list goes on and on, never mind the odd plague or two.
What did Hobbes say - "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (say, that's a good name for a law firm!)?
Well, strike 'solitary' and that pretty much describes the human condition throughout most of history, not just primitive days.
Good times, good times...
@@JESL_TheOnlyOne Tangent, there is a midlands law firm called Wright, Hassle (sp?) and Co.
Great take on this. I will say, as a Canadian, that the sort of cultural experience had living in a colonized society with very shallow history and a nebulous cultural identity, gives a very weird and unsatisfactory feeling to anyone who wonders “how did I get here?” There’s a sort of cultural void for people whose family have lived here for several generations now and all they’ve got is hockey and Tim Hortons, lol.
Damn, that was deep!
@@wasidanatsali6374 Yes, but ... cultural appropriation.
@@wasidanatsali6374 No, I didn't mean that at all. I meant that the descendants of European settlers have no right to appropriate a history that is not their own. Appreciate, yes. Appropriate, no. Please don't read things into my words that I did not say.
@@wasidanatsali6374 Contrary to what you have assumed, I am fairly well read on history in North America as I have not only visited the USA, have cousins from both sides of my family in Mexico, the USA and Canada. I have also read extensively in English, French and Spanish sources and contemporary accounts in those original languages, as well as reading posts on various social media by Native Americans in the USA and First Nations in Canada to hear what they say about their own cultures.
My comment was not snarky. It was intended to underscore the ambivalence expressed in the initial comment by a Canadian. There are many immigrants to Canada and the USA whose families have only been there for 3-4 generations and who do not have the old intercultural links that you speak of. They do not have that common shared history and are wary of appropriating something that is not theirs.
By the way, people in Scotland call themselves Scots. And no, the Scots don't appropriate Viking culture because it did not establish itself in most of Scotland. The only places that uphold Viking culture are the Shetlands, and to a lesser extent the Orkneys, because they were Norwegian for 600 years. It is their culture. People from other parts of Scotland appreciate the Viking culture of the Northern Isles, including the Norse-flavoured dialects, when they are there, but they don't claim it as their own.
The Vikings who established their maritime kingdom in the Western Isles adopted the local language and customs.
@@alicemilne1444
Master,
Please tell us mixed bloodeds how to live our lives?
Before your dictatorial dominance, People could be free to be whom they chose.
How narrow is one's existence or life meant to be to satisfy your sense of purity?
I think you nailed it on the head. Americans are very interested in their own family histories because every American family’s history begins the same way, and that’s the immigration of an individual or a few individuals together from the old world to the new, whether it happened yesterday or a couple hundred years ago.
"A couple hundred years ago" of course ignores "indigenous" cultures that came here from other parts of the world a thousand years ago, but ok.
I think, too, that our ancestors were so busy just staying alive and building a nation that we kind of lost our identities over time and have been able to reconnect with them only recently through DNA. My own lines have taught me that. I knew some things before but have learned many more things about my family in the last few years, that weren't passed along. Plus, many from the earlier generations didn't talk about those things.
Exactly.
I like your spirit. But you are out of line..
Paul Alexander Burnette IV
@@pab4435interesting quote, what is that from? The Burnette name cought my eye, because my second great grandmother was a Burnette.
Scot's are a balanced people we have a chip on both shoulders
Thats sooo funny 😂,
Then we will eat both later as we love things fried like chips
@@colintosh5417 You have no idea what I would do for a Haggis Supper right now.
@@jonsouth1545 yeah Haggis is nice anybody who says its not hasnt even tried it
Pfft. We Irish have a field of spuds on each.
Am Scottish /Algerian but most of my family in Glasgow mix but still scottish proud.
Hell yeah! 🏴
Am Scottish but more glasgow proud, geez it
I am Algerian and my uncle lives in Scottland
gaun yersel mate!
I re-watched this video because it's one of your best, and because it has me pretty pegged, and I'm far from alone in that. I think your Reason Number 3 resonates more than the others: Think of how adopted people feel about themselves, those who grew up not knowing their birth parents. If they know they're adopted, they feel deprived of knowing their real parents and long to know from whence they came. It's the same for us Americans: we know we aren't from here, and our culture and history effectively only go back as far as you can throw a stone (compared to those of you who are rooted a lot further back). We want to know from whence we came, because without that we're a little lost as far as our place in the historical world is.
I came here to say something like this. I grew up celebrating my Irish and German ancestry (less so the English and French). There's a lot of pride here in the US, particularly for European ancestry. I didn't think it was unusual until an Italian coworker remarked that he noticed Italian Americans felt "more Italian than actual Italians", and it made him feel weird. I think maybe partly it's that different ethnic groups tended to stick together in cities when they came to the US, making Chinatowns and Korea Towns and Little Italies and whatnot. For a while it was because it was the only place those folks might be welcomed, and it gave the first gens a place to find folks who ate the same food, went to the same place of worship, and spoke the same language. For their kids (especially in the 20th century) it was a little embarrassing to be associated with these cultures (see all of Toula's eye-rolling in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for example), because that ethnicity made them stand out as different from their peers - a reason to be bullied. But as generations pass and we simply become "Americans" (and grow up and learn that being different makes us more interesting instead of targets), we want to know what that means, maybe because it can mean so many different things. For Americans it is a matter of personal, rather than national history: Where did I come from? Why am I this way? Why did Grandma use honey instead of sugar in her cookie recipes? Why did my Methodist grandfather disapprove of my Lutheran mother and where does that bias come from?
I bet there are sociology PhDs written about this sort of thing. I'd love to learn more about what makes our viewpoints so different.
This is spot on.
I’d agree with this as well, while wholly identifying as an American. Even though I’ve always lived here, there’s something inside you that knows it’s not the place of your ancestors. We’re “come here’s” even if we were born here, unless were First Nations. That fact is engrained in us from an early age due to the history of this country. I often wonder how it would feel to stand on ground I knew my ancestors lived on. It seems like it would to have an odd feeling of belonging to it.
I think the weird thing for the observer is that Americans make a massive thing about how they founded a new country, a new identity, no more tyranny, the land of the free and home of the (CHIEFS!) brave. They tell everyone its the best country in the world and believe that everyone wants to live there. At the same time, they're Irish, Scottish, German, Italian, African (that's fair enough to be honest, their ancestors had no choice) and to us its like "why?", is the American identity not enough? Maybe it's because you've realised you replaced one elitist class system with just a different one, still ran by morally bankrupt, self-serving millionaires, that the principles the country was founded on are now just a dream, that the product doesn't actually represent what's advertised and so it's not really everything to be proud of? I don't know, just an observation.
As an American and an adopted person, I can't help but agree with you. According to my DNA, I'm about equal parts Scottish, English, and German, but I feel profoundly disconnected.
As a "Yank"....im proud to be an American.....but im also very proud of my Scottish herritage. Tracing mine was a wonderful journey. One i feel everyone should take.
Tbh being Scottish isn’t about the genetics, it’s about the culture. A second generation Indian living in Scotland is far more Scottish to me than an American whose genetically Scottish but is culturally American
I agree
Culture but also empathy and mindset. I don't consider genetics or what your surname to be that important.
@@thetartanspartan01 exactly that. My ancestry is Irish, both my parents from there, I was raised in an Irish family surrounded by an Irish community in London, educated in a catholic school with other kids from Irish parentage, but in a wider societal sense, I am English
It is both cultural and genetic, there is an ethnic group of native Scots and there are people who have come to Scotland and integrated into its society and become scots, both are acceptable demographic groups, there is also a 3rd group whom move to Scotland and form small colonies of like minded ethnic groups such as the English, Pakastani, Iranian etc. and sometimes these groups refuse to integrate, these are not Scots even though they live in Scotland.
@@billdoor1569 which is why the ideal is culturally, or else it borders German Aryan race ideology
I'm an American and have always had an interest in history from all around the world. But until now I've not had much interest in my own personal families history. I'd just like to thank you for inspiring me to research the history of my own lineage.
Also I love this channel, you sir have a gift. Thanks for sharing it with the world 🌎
You're welcome
"A level of inbreeding they haven't even managed in Fife!"
My dads mother and my mother both came from Dunfermline and I can confirm this!
I laughed so hard I spat tea all over my monitor.
Just found your channel and I love it
Welcome on board ma man
@@ScotlandHistoryTours I'm fae Kirkcaldy and laughed out loud at that. Well used to it having worked in Edinburgh for years.. Ya sheep shaggin..... 😉
Brilliant work, enjoying yer channel.
I live in Fife and there are lots of wee stunted looking gargoyles walking about the place, with sour-face attitudes to boot! At 6'5" I stand out like a sore thumb. The rolling hills and lovely coastline make it just about tolerable though and most folks are pleasant enough.
My Great Great Grandfather Alexander was born in Dunfermline and died in Pittsburgh
ruclips.net/video/bxrcAzeV4Cg/видео.html
Earlier this year I went on my first trip to Scotland with my wife. It was an incredible visit. We saw many of the great and beautiful sites Scotland has to offer. We learned more history and gained a greater appreciation for Scottish culture and history. I’ve always thought Scotland was beautiful and interesting from seeing it portrayed in films and in books. However, only in the past couple of years after learning more about my Scottish ancestry did I gain a most deep desire to learn more and to visit. I think learning about your family tree is an important thing for all folks to do. It gives you a sense of gratitude for those who came before you and made sacrifices for their children and their children’s children. Im an American, and I think our melting pot gives many folks a desire to know which enterprising ancestors they had who came to this country seeking a new life as after so many generations back, we find that our ancestors probably didn’t live in North America. While in Europe, many families can probably trace back their lineage thousands of years in the same continent. As far as I can tell my Scottish ancestors were not anyone famous and while my great great grandfather’s name is William Wallace Walker, I don’t think we are in any significant way related to him. But all the same I can see the pride my great great great grandfather had in his Scottish culture to name his son William Wallace, and that makes me feel extra proud knowing my fore fathers came from the great land of Scotland.
I have no idea who my ancestors were but, as a man born and raised in Dundee, I reckon many of them fought and died for the idea that Scots are, and shall always be, a people to be proud of, from a place to be in love with.
More than likely they died over the multitude of clan wars we had
OMG! My paternal grandfather claimed for as long as I can remember the our family was descended from Robert the Bruce. You could hear the collective eyes rolling in our heads every time he said it. But, I do think there's something to us Yanks, whose country is so young, wanting to know and tie ourselves to a heritage. We a want to belong somewhere, dubious claims and all.
Many are related to him so dont' appreciate you calling it dubious claims.
@@melissagibson7626 Scottish people in Scotland are collectively eyerolling at your cringe behaviour and 100% definitely dubious claims. Go outside
@@hm9120 shut up black spot. Learn to keep your nose out of ones business.
@@hm9120 lmao like how can you watch the video, read the comments, and still type that 😆
Mine is proud to be descended from highland cattle thieves and sheep shaggers.
As a Scot (born in NI, but grew up in Scotland) I have always been interested in my family’s history. I have so far traced my ancestors back to 1640....most were from Scotland and some of the families moved back and forth between Scotland and Ireland at different times. They are all remarkable to me, not because they were famous or rich or anything like that. Mainly, they were hard workers, labourers, midwives, servants, miners, engineers etc. The remarkable thing for me is that the vast majority lived till they were elderly 60-90 odd years old! Hardy stock 💪🏻....now that’s something to feel proud of 🏴
You are going to live forever girl!
60-70 was average for rural people at the time once they had passed 21.. the very high mortality rate was much concentrated in younger ages.. especially the first few years of life.
I found this channel yesterday and love it. As an American mutt made up of Scottish, Irish, Welch, French and native American along with others, i'd have to say it's because we look for the heros. As our history, and knowledge of the places our ancestors come from is not fully in our face we tend to cling to the heros and nobility that are made public and famous on our television and in our books. And automatically want to claim were related to that person. We tend to focus on the person, their accomplishments and not the history of our ancestors as a whole.
I think also the difference also is Scottish heritage vs well just being Scottish, it's two different things. We don't need to prove we have flashy ancestors as we're actually Scottish. So I think for Americans its interest and insecurity rolled into one.
Funnily enough I found one of my ancestors' Uncle's death coin from WW1. Man lived in Glasgow and held the last name the same as that of a mistress to Bonnie Prince Charlie. I checked where that woman was from, Clementina i believe, and it was from Glasgow as well. So there's a chance I'm a really distant legal relative of a claim to the throne. I think very few people here worry about much outwith perhaps clans or the history behind their crest and near relatives just because it gets soo up in the air for most families here who's ancestors didn't leave much about themselves until the 20th century seeing as many were working class and likely lacked a grand legacy or heirloom until the wars.
@@OnlyGrafting what an interesting find! Although as a posible descendant of a mistress ~ no legal claim to the throne.
As Americans we don't have to prove anything, because we're Americans. But you know, we want to cheer up you Old Worlders by reminding you that _some_ of your distant relatives accomplished something, so maybe there's some hope for you. 😉 😉 😉
I am from the US and it seems to me people here love to claim basically any heritage that isn't English.
@@alanlight7740 I'm a beneficiary of the clearances ( as you may well be) and an obnoxiously proud US citizen. I just want to thank you for encouraging our cousins.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video - I'm a Fifer! - and the views of beautiful Loch Tay. I get frustrated by the emotional version of Scottish history that blames the English for everything bad. We unite against a common enemy and avoid taking responsibility for the mess in our own backyard. We have much to be proud of and so much more we could do.
Agreed. Being a Scottish Borderer & one of the old Reiving Clans, it's great to see us all getting on so well. After Reiving was stamped out we intermarried & now have family on both sides of the Borders. We çross the the Borders daily for work, shopping, dentists, doctors, hairdressers etc Pre Covid Scots travelled to English NHS hospitals for vital treatments, the alternative being a long, gruelling round trip. Apart from the odd personal difference, we've all got on well for years & long may it carry on for many more years.
As an Englishmen, I wince practically every time Bruce does a video. I can't help but watch them though as I love history. Like Bruce and millions of others, I am proud to be what I am, but it is tainted with what England did as a nation to so many peoples. Thank you for the kinder words about us south of the border. 👍😉
@@theseeker4642 j
I met some Americans near Strathpeffer and they asked about where they could and couldn't go.
So I explained the right to roam.
I think they thought I was crazy which is true but not relevant.
You can hardly go anywhere in the US without the police loitering about and wondering what you're up to.
@@bt8593 the right to roam is enshrined in scots law. there is no law of trespass ergo no private property. that is the basic tenet on the law. there are however exceptions, you cant invade peoples privacy, walk into their home etc, or damage property, crops in fields etc, or approach endangered species, ospreys, sea eagles etc, nor can you take a picture of them which would identify their location and post it on social media.
@@kevinreillydenmylne what about hunting spaces?
@@kevinreillydenmylne not to mention military land.
@@bt8593 Generally on private land and therefore needs the consent of the landowner. Also, depending on the species there are seasons (as in the US of A).
As an American with Scottish ancestry myself, "The Red Spot" was probably making a joke about Americans rather than being serious. I myself have a mix of Scots-Irish (Scots who settled in Northern Ireland), English, French, Dutch, German, and Norwegian in my family bloodline. That Scottish ancestry comes from Clan Hamilton; and, in turn, from the union of James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton, with Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran. Mary Stewart's lineage traces back to Robert the Bruce. However, this is only one tiny percentage of my family tree.
We're there black Scottish?
@@lynnwoodcarter3486I think you replied to the wrong person?
@@EyreAffair no to u lol ?
@@EyreAffair we're u from
Wow, Goldsmith you are even more of a mutt than me! I have the same blood as you in a lesser way, less diversity. Scots/Irish , Danish, and a little German. So basically , as we have picked at the tree of family the places were Highland Scottish ( married to Inverness Scot ) Dublin Irish, Danish we do not know, same for German. So it is very simple. Viking. Viking everywhere. Dublin has more Viking exhibits than Scandanavia ! Vikings hit Scotland as they moved west and just ran smack into it, in the highlands. But my grandparents drilled the fact that we are American into us and to be proud of that and when asked you say " I am an American". So, there you go , long lost cousin! LOL Take care!
It's also that, for those whose ancestors left Scotland, they're "stuck" (for lack of a better word) in the time of their Scottish ancestor's leaving the homeland. I've seen it with my own mother, who left the U.S. in the 1960s to marry my father and still thinks that her homeland is as it was when she left. Take that and magnify it by four centuries, and it's basically a really bad game of telephone.
Love the vids and your perspective, and I totally love the stories!
Great observation and analogy!
This is especially true of Irish heritage. English folk who travel often say that they get treated normally by Irish people in Ireland but when they enter an Irish bar in say Boston or New York they get treated like shit or ignored because Irish-Americans still seem to think the Irish and English are at war and that they have a duty to hate them.
@@krashd LOL... Absolutely; and try having both Irish and English in your ancestry! Talk about identity crisis! ;)
that's not just Scotland... I recently visited the town I grew up in 30 years ago and it's nothing like I remember. Why can't places just stay the way we remember them lol
I just discovered your channel a few days ago and I find your history lessons very interesting but I just watched this one right after I watched "Can a black guy talk about Scottish history" (or whatever it was called) and I LOVE your take on the "here and now." FWIW and if it is not too late to join this conversation: part of the identity of non-indigenous Canadians is "knowing where you came from" which is part of the recognition that we are here because of colonialism. So if we don't rightly belong here, where we were born, it would be good to have a connection to a place we are allowed to call "home" without having to steal it from somebody. Keep this great content coming.
Darkly contemporary now...sadly...
Quite similar here in Australia.
You taught me briefly at Breadalbane academy. Absolute shock to come across you on RUclips out of the blue! Love the content! Congrats on your successful channel!
Welcome aboard!
Great episode Bruce and glad you intervened on this stooshie. I welcome anyone who is interested in their Scottish ancestry or wants to know more about our country’s rich history. Loved your point about us all being Jock Tamson’s Nairn’s and it reminded me what my mum & dad taught me when I was young - “Always remember that you’re no better than anyone else, but nobody else is any better than you!”
Keep going Bruce, spot on 👌
Thank you for this welcoming comment! We are all just giving this life a go. My family has visited Scotland and found it absolutely amazing
Here in America we have gotten the terms ethnicity and culture all mixed up. My grandfather came here from Scotland because he wanted to be an American. He did however manage to share Scottish culture with his children and grandchildren.
why did he want to leave - did he ever say, and what year
I had been thinking that same thought, when I got some unwanted "ethnicity" results. I thought, I bet someone could make an entirely free multiple choice test to as accurately determine ethnicity, (would you belong somewhere you do not want to be) then I thought, "I bet you could actually figure out a person's *culture*". The *culture* being a place and society they would be best suited to thrive in.
Fukme, why do you think we changed our names and left? Because of persecution that could fallow you into the new world. My gradpa told me when asked about our history, it doesn't matter life is better here and now
His parents traveled in horse and wagon looking for life after getting here, HE raised his family living in a tent looking for work in the early 19 hundreds...think about it..
Another American boasting
Thanks everyone for the enjoyable discussion:) I do the ancestry thing in part because I enjoy history generally and also to see my potential connection to it. To me it is interesting to note how many times various branches of the family end up on the opposite sides of the same conflict - one gr-grandparent has done in another. Also, in reference to the multiplicity of forebears, one begins to notice quite a bit of overlap the further back you go. It is also not hard to find famous/noble ancestors; once you find one, you usually find others since they often intermarried. I heard that most of present day Europe is descended from Charlemagne:)
Personally, I also enjoy the channel because my granny, who I dearly miss, was born in Paisley. When I hear a scots accent, I hear her. We (my brother & cousins) had scottish culture around when we were young, were taught to wear orange on St. Patrick’s Day, stand for Scotland the Brave and, curiously enough, sing Rule Britannia. Granny’s father was a Yorkshireman and her husband a Canadian who fought for the Union Jack in WWI. I find this border straddling phenomenon intriguing. If I can bend your ear with another example, my 6x gr-grandfather was a colonial officer in the revolutionary war who fought in the failed Canadian Campaign. After the war, he continued to farm in Connecticut, but his eldest son ( my 5x gg) went to Canada - a United Empire Loyalist? Or just for the free land? Idk! Anyway, Mr. Bruce, keep up the good work!
I feel like the Scots have been everywhere, genetically, at this point! I’m a Torre strait islander, Fiji levuka, and I can trace my Scottish blood back to a single fella in the late 18th century. Turns out he was a boat worker and apart of many Scottish immigrants that sought land and work in the islands, being seen as only suitable for the lower class. Funny enough, his Scottish linage gave us greater claim to the land once the Brits rolled in, and remains there till this day. Sadly, I can’t trace his name back any further than his own parents.
And edit: awesome video! Summed it up real well and fantastic mise en scene. It’s societal norms and changes and the value of history and culture, that impacts how we interpret our linage and family history. I think making a point of DOCUMENTED history is super important too, how many oral traditions, stories and experiences have we lost because an Englishman didn’t write it down? Looking at American history, and not to get controversial, but during slavery, identity and individualism, as the most important aspects to a persons worth. If you had no culture, no people, no family, you had no meaning. Nowadays, it seems like Americans hold onto that individualism through family dynamics and history.
Is your name Makara a result of this? There is a fair amount of Makaras in Leith, Edinburgh.
@@johnbinnie5697 that sounds awesome as but nope, sadly! My names just an online monicker, his name was Kini MacPherson, son of William MacPherson! I was super inspired after this vid to double check that, he wasn’t some family legend, and his family is actually recorded in the Fiji Museum! N using some online data, so I’m not too sure how accurate it is, but William MacPhersons family can be traced back to the 16th Century! He’s not some “”noble””” line or anything, just super cool how over a few generations, we’ve migrated to a different island 😂 Awesome stuff
@@kurlozmakara4194 That is so cool!
Wonder why? Why is imperialist roots praised when its from scotland lmao
My ancestors SHOULD be praised for getting as far away from the English as possible if was their choice 'lmao' - key word is immigrant here, most people didn't have a choice or were lied to/ promised a better future etc.
I love your channel, I’m an American who is more interested in Scottish history in general than my direct line. My DNA shows most of my ancestry is from Scotland and Norway (surprise surprise) but as far as finding who I’m related to or not related to is not what drives me to learn about Scotland. I want to know more about the people who came before me. I thank you for sharing your love and enthusiasm for Scotland with us, you’ve made the history come alive for me
I second that!
I feel the same way Tatti, for the same reasons.
With a name like mine (Smith? Really?) it's a fair bet that I'm not likely related to famous, historical Scots. To me, that's not important as learning my family's history, when and why they came to this side of The Pond.
@@smithadmin it breaks my heart how badly my ancestors were treated. I knew they were part of the people who were “removed” their lands, but I never knew the whole story of what happened
@@tattil.c.6290 Take that a step further. Another RUclipsr explained that most of the Scots that came to North America came from the Highlands, so there is usually some interest with some Americans and Candians in Gaelic (which was apparently commonly used in the Highlands), whilst most that remained in Scotland were from the Lowlands and tended to speak Scots and/or English.
Not understanding this difference, some folks in the US (for example) get unrealistic expectations when visiting Scotland. I like to learn from videos like this because it helps to fill in some of the gaps and it helps me understand why people did what they did.
@@smithadmin Agreed. We can trace back to North Carolina where we know they came from Scotland and landed there, I also have Cherokee when was the predominate Indian tribe there. But because the line stops there, we are assuming they were some of the nameless people who came over as indentured servants or just run off their lands. I never really knew much about Scotland until a few years ago. These videos are fascinating to me, sad in many ways but makes me appreciate my heritage more.
I've only just discovered your videos and am loving them. My dad was English and my mother Scottish. I was never brought up to think of myself as anything other than English, but to be very proud of my Scottish link through my Grandad who was a Gordon Highlander who fought through WWI. The only time it came out in conflict was when Enland played Scotland at footie, when my mother who hated football suddenly became a great fan and wouldn't talk to my dad all day and sat with clutched hands, glued to the TV for the whole game shouting at the TV. Lol.
I have no record to show any Scottish heritage. I'm just fascinated by Scotland's history and culture because it is full of stories and struggles for independence and because it is the birthplace of the age of enlightenment.
Gooooood answer😊
Same here. From the Netherlands and as far as I know all my ancestors are too. Just interested in history and I like this guy's style.
Hmmm, I can't actually vouch for all my ancestors being faithfull to their husbands. My sister's done some research but that just gives you who they were married to, if you think about it... No famous people though and most of them are from the same region: a bog...
Anyway, hilarious video!
Yep, I just have a Lowland, Scot surname, no other connection with Scotland. First surnamed ancestor in Virginia, 1720's. Records all burned, obscured. Familial rumor of northern France (1680's). The surname's found all over Europe. M'Grandfather sheared sheep. So, what the hay? NW WA USA
Enlightenmnet! Great point.
bro scotland invented the united kingdom
My father was born in Scotland and my mother is from Ireland I love my heritage and it's history this is why I love your channel being born in America watching your channel has help me to learn and understand alot of history thank you❤️
I just finished watching the video, and first of all, I'd like to say that rarely do I actually belly laugh, out loud, but I do many times while watching your videos. So, thank you.
Secondly, as a Texan, and an American (both of equal import 😉) AND a person with Scottish genes, (albeit, persons running cattle in bare feet and NOT in fancy clothes), I think you made a very accurate assessment. My grandad was born in Dunoon, so I have always been interested in the family history (those rotten Campbell's!) But, also I am a genuine history buff. I think there is a difference in someone who finds ALL history worth investigating, and those just interested in finding a "famous ancestor" in their lineage. Some care about being related to so-and-so, and others who find the injustice in not JUST the Clearances, but the Famine, the Nazis, Mussolini, etc
in history worth remembering. My Texas history is as important to me as any other, but it's a "newer" history. And for some like myself, studying genealogy is important because we didn't get to know or hear the old stories of days gone by, because our family members either died or disappeared, so we are looking for CONNECTION...
Just my take! Thanks for the laughs, and tell those people who are acting like children to put their grown up drawers on, and behave themselves.
A Texan who puts being an American as equal import to being a Texan.... I think I just saw a pig fly. 😁😉
@@rachelsullivan2926 Yeah, honestly....Remember the Alamo! 😜
@@khumphrey2231 haha. Texan through and through!
Texan-American!
@@rachelsullivan2926 You bet,!
Hey, Bruce! Vlogging Through History just released a reaction to this video. His commentary (as an American himself) was illuminating and it added some perspective as an American who knows his own ancestry well.
I am in agreement with you regarding our obsession with ancestry. Our country is so new that we want to be part of something older. Like VTH, I know who some of my ancestors are, and I could prattle on about them for hours if you like, but I don't want to delve too deeply into a lot of it because some of it is very painful. My own research taught me things I never learned in history books about such things as the founding of the nation in the aftermath of the American Revolution. My grandmother's maiden name would almost certainly give me a family that sent men to Culloden moor, but I can't prove that for certain.
As a final message to my fellow Americans: be proud of your heritage. Don't be afraid to share cultures and customs with others and the history, but don't put down other cultures because of it, and don't overexaggerate your claims. As you said, we're all Jock Thompson's bairns.
Came here from VTH as well.
Im American, Oklahoma born and raised, and I think you’re right. Americans may care more about their lineage. I believe this is because an individual’s ancestry is the only thing most of us have to link us with our homeland. Yes, not all Americans care about where they come from or how they got there, but, many do. These people who care really actually feel that their home is a place they might never have a chance to visit.
Would love to give you a tour if you get the chance to come over. 👍🏻
I think you nailed it! That is exactly how I see it
Very well put!
As a Scot/Cherokee I get to dance around the issue. Scots and Cherokee intermarried frequently because they had very similar rites...and if I am to believe my Papa about our forefather Son of David is to be taken literally in the Biblical sense.
There were even stories of the Cherokee being a lost tribe of Israel here in North American before we became United States.
So I get to be Scot or Cherokee or Baptist or Jew depending on your debate...
"I believe this is because an individual’s ancestry is the only thing most of us have to link us with our homeland. "
thats a really interesting statement... what do you mean "your homeland?"
My parents were born in Jamaica but I was born in America. I consider America my homeland. I have been to Jamaica and know a bit of its history but I would never consider Jamaica, Africa or Scotland (im also a Mac) my homeland.
Your "American, Oklahoma born and raised" why would you consider any old world country your "homeland" just because of some tenuous genetic relationship but little or no direct cutural connection?
I ask this in all respect as I was supprised by the first 2 lines of your comment.
I am American , half my family emigrated from Scotland, I love history that I can look at and see what my ancestor’s went through, accomplished, and endured. I think you’re right and it does embolden me.
Robert de Brus Was he French like all Norman noblemen at the time. Norman ? Thats Viking I believe
@@tonybannister1 Pretty much all British nobles were Normans by that stage.
The so called Scottish wars of Independence were nothing more than rival Norman lords having a civil war over who was stealing what from who, and they made the predominantly non Norman peasants fight and die to get it.
They managed to whip up nationalist fervour in people who should have told them where to go.
guess im the only one to notice batman emerge from the water dry as a whistle? lol
Funnily enough, Batman (Bruce Wayne) got his name from a mix of John Wayne & Robert the Bruce
The Batcave must be located at the shore of that loch.
I found that i have a large portion of Scottish ancestry when i was expecting 90% German. After doing genealogical research and digging into history, i can tell you that out of all my ancestors, the Scottish ones have the wildest of stories. That is what led me to your channel. 😊
A really interesting topic. As an Australian with mainly Scots heritage (as far as I know) I have had an interest in Scottish history. This is why this channel caught my eye. Now having said that if I have any identity it is Australian first and daylight second. It seems a bit ridiculous to me to think (or want to think) otherwise. But I take the point that in the broader new world where everyone is a migrant and if they could be bothered - find out exactly when their forebears arrived. So it is actually interesting to understand where your family came from. Added to that we live in a multicultural age where you cannot get through a day without hearing about how important this or that cultural identity is.
I had no idea about American's propensity to assume lineage to historical heroes I haven't noticed that with Australians maybe due to the history of settlement or maybe some general difference in character. Or I might be completely wrong.
Anyway, this is a great channel for content. The style of delivery is a winner.
I had no interest in Scottish history until I stumbled across your channel. However, being Irish, and having such a similar history (similar struggles particularly) your words resonate and I frankly can’t stop listening 😂
Same here 😂
Ya know… my friend Neil McIntosh, who lives in Glasgow, taught me about “Jock Thompson’s Bairns”!! And I agree with the idea COMPLETELY!!
Just found your videos. I don't know where I've been to not find this channel before. It's amazing! I'm an American who is not really into tracing my ancestors because I'm worried I won't like who they were. 😆 I love everything about Scotland, it's culture,history and people. So I consider myself 100% Scottish at heart and that's what matters to me.
"A level of inbreeding they haven't even managed in Fife! And they work at it!" literally had me laughing out loud.
Your observations on the differences between how Scottish and Americans see history are largely correct. The core is a quest for identity. My Native American friends can say, "I'm Hoopa," or "I'm Navajo." Me? I'm just one more white guy. Who are my people? So we become enthralled with genealogies. The only ancestry I can trace back farther than five generations is on my maternal grandmother's side. Being of Scottish descent gives me sense of belonging to a people, which probably also explains why the Clan system is so interesting to us as well. And so I retell my children our family stories, insert my grandmother's sept into my eldest child's middle name, and spend hours binge-watching short videos on Scottish history in an effort to connect with my roots. ;-) Thanks again!
Why not just be American?
Those privileged Native Americans with their fully intact and undamaged histories and cultures which my ancestors definitely did not almost totally decimate, said the white member of America's dominant racial class.
@@hm9120 Where did he say anything even relating to that? Why do you people feel the need to pull victimhood shit up everywhere you go? Jesus...
Honestly I laughed throughout the entire episode, honestly I think you hit the nail on the head when we Americans are searching for a sense of belonging, familial ties are important here. I am far less concerned about what my ancestors did, and would just focus my attention on what I'm going to do. Seems like a safer way of feeling accomplished, without riding on the coattails of the great. Or sharing a secret family shame, I suppose. lol
Oh my, yes!!!! Sometimes you find out things that you'd rather you didn't.
3 minutes in when he says about "99% over 400 years, that's a level of inbreeding that no even been achieved in Fife" fckin buckled 🤣🤣🤣 Big Man I salute you 😂😂😂😂😂
Hell yay, 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣
I choked on my food ! LoL my partner is a Fifer
I’m from Faw’kirk and thought that statement was absolutely awesome. 😂🏴
As an American with Scots-Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh & German ancestry, I feel like we are all lumped together in a category as just “white”. Speaking for myself, I want to celebrate the cultures and histories that my ancestors came from because I want to remember and pass along those stories and traditions down to my children. Love your videos, Bruce!
Same same. I love the way our culture acts like white people "don't have ethnicity",😅 all that "I'm probably just a boring white mutt" nonsense.
Having worked in retail where floods of tourists came by, I can say I’ve met about 80% of Robert the Bruce’s and William Wallace’s family. It’s amazing how the same speil was uttered by all of them. Needless to say it was thrown back in a playful manner by pointing out that I am an Anderson, which broken down is ‘son of Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland’ and by that, my ancestor has a recognised flag flown all over the country and when challenged would bring out the namesake book in the store and point it out to them. It was great fun playing top trumps, even when I knew that my story was most likely as fictitious as theirs. There could be truth to my ancestry but I like the Jock Tamson ideology.
I worked in a pub in a busy tourist area in Ireland, and to be fair, I loved the American tourists. They were extremely friendly, easy to talk to and genuinely interested in the local area and culture.
Some had excellent historical knowledge too.
But I do understand what you mean. Sometimes people would tell me that they were direct descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages as if that was something to brag about hehe. Niall of the Nine Hostages was like Genghis Khan, the majority of Irish people probably have some kind of genetic link to the guy.
Irish 'kings' (tribal chieftains by today's standards) used to have lots of children with various women and divide their lands between them. Only the strongest or most cunning would get a shot at replacing him. The others would divide their own patch among their own children. So after a few generations, even the lowest classes of Irish society were only a few generations down from some sort of 'royalty', and you get some jokes about this in Irish/Gaelic literature, villages of peasants boasting to foreign aristocrats about their royal genealogy.
@@cigh7445 yikes I am both an Anderson and descendent Niall of nine hostages (23andme told me so 😂)
@@manderson406 Hehe, you and the majority of people with even a small amount of Irish ancestry!
I'm actually not sure if I am. Apparently the far south of the country was the one part he never really bothered with...
Andrew, the brother of st peter and apostle of Jesus, the greatest Scottish lad
Usual pish. The best laugh is that the amount of groundbreaking discoveries and inventions in the last 200 years from Scottish people that they could claim was a relative and go for someone 700 years ago and expect people to believe it.
My Scottish connection: my father was stationed on USS Canopus in Holy Loch, Scotland. I was 10 months old when he was transferred to Scotland; and was almost 4 when we left. We lived in Dunoon. I absolutely love the people of Scotland, and I like to think that I'm an honorary Scot.
Never even knew Americans saying they're related to Robert the Bruce was a thing.
I always thought my coolest Scottish ancestor was a Priest who had the virility to have 16 children.
In one sitting??
@@tictoc3148 With the same woman?
He wouldn’t have been a priest then a minister maybe but the Catholic Church don’t allow them to have children so he wouldn’t have been a fully ordained priest
And quite frankly 16 kids was normal take into consideration that most of them may have died by the age of 5
@@heatherrdunn5883 Pope's had children, check out Rodrigo Borgia, aka Alexander lV
@@paulgraham8280 fair enough but I’ve done about 5 minutes of research and there has been no popes with children while they have been ordained so they have had these children before the actual became figures within the Catholic Church and taken their vow of celibacy and were talking between 1122 and 1550 ball park dates so not recently and not in the time that America had been colonised by the West
Once you have been ordained into the Catholic Church you take a vow of celibacy
So the above comment is correct they did not have these children while active members of the Catholic Church
Many Scots take for granted answers to questions that drive many dissaffected and enslaved Americans. Most of us came to the USA born from hardships, not selfish ambition. Over time, we lost this sense of identity and search for it with vigor. Though many make up "facts" such as being related to Robert the Bruce, this exageration is born from a sense of pride about the heritage that brought us here and that which makes us unique. I love your channel brother. I am learning about the history of my people and that makes me proud. Thank you
Canadian here. One thing about N.America is that when we look around, there isn't the same wealth of history by comparison, and we still look back across the ocean for our family history.
In a place like Scotland, you are up to your eyeballs history day in, day out, and it is a history that is important to us as well.
Hi Simon, the history and cultures of your region go back millenia, just not European based until more recent times.
My Dad was adopted so as someone who doesn't know their ancestry I find this very interesting.
As an American with some (but not 99%) Scottish ancestry, I recently decided to do the actual work to trace my surname to it's earliest origin. Maybe to help me learn more about myself and my identity. In America we did not learn Scottish history and your channel has been great at that. You are right in the fact that most Americans could care less about it, but as for me, it has been really helpful and exciting to see where we came from and what events happened that made us cross the pond. I hope one day to be able to travel to Scotland and see all the places in person, and who knows, maybe meet some of my cousins. Cheers to you, Love the videos... So happy to have stumbled across your channel.
but your surname only represents one line/branch on your family tree (your direct paternal line). There's also your father's mother's surname, her mother and her mother etc etc. We have as many surnames attached to us as we do ancestors.
@@shaunsteele8244 I enjoyed both Joseph and your comments here, for me, I actually find it fascinating to explore the branches, just to see how wide my ancestory has been. I am English born, half Irish, born in the Danelaw (so part Nordic), my dad was named after the Norman (French/nordics) Knight who ran the local castle back in the day, The Romans billited a army of Spaniards there for a while......and one day I will find out if I actually have any Neanderthal DNA in me, and will be stoked if I do! Of course, if a person is into Racial purity and all that hogwash, this truth doesn't sit well, as it completely destroys any claims they have in that regard, and forces us all to realise we are all one big, varied, quite argumentative family!
As a Scottish-American, I am appalled and amused! Great video!
i think the attraction is based on the fact that kilted warriors knocking 7 types of sh*te out of each other with lumps of iron is a very popular and lucrative business in netflix and amazon at the moment. add in some bodice ripping scenes and you have a very successful porridge western :)
😂 porridge western! That’s brilliant!
Haggis attacks
Both of those descriptions of films are very good well done haggis attacks and porridge western is typically clever use of language that we in south east England appreciate very much
The rippin' o the Bodice should be in the highland games, then the Cabers to be tossed afterwards.
Ha ha! what a brilliant post, Porridge western, FFS! magnificent. shades of Rab C Nesbitt
My maternal grandmother was a Thompson who married a Collier.
You are correct that all of you in Scotland do know from who you come, here in America we have been so scattered that we are all desperately grasping at straws to understand just who we are and where we came from. So I’d like to see those there being a little more patient with my brothers and sisters here on this side of the great pond! Wado oginali (thank you my freind). 😁
I really enjoyed this! Thank you
My mother came to the states, from Scotland, in the 50's. I grew up with stories about a nation. While my mom was proud of individuals, she was really proud of the people and the nation. I thin Americans are raised on individual pride while most of Europe is raised on community pride
My mom was researching this for one of her books, since America & Australia were mostly settled by criminals/malcontents/people who said, "If the grass is greener over the hill, then that is where I'm going" (broad generalizations of course). This may lead to a genetic tendency towards promoting solitary accomplishment and individualism.
@@spacedinosaur8733 if you would like an understanding of how this misperception of malcontents always looking for greener pastures came about, all you need to do is look at the politics. Rich industrialists in the North, rich plantationists in the South. I'll pick on the South.
Poor people, criminals with a social debt to pay, and people trying to escape rigid social castes, were the first slaves in the British colonies. They were either sentenced to indenturement to pay their debts, sold themselves to repay them, or sold themselves in exchange for passage to the New World. After 7 years indenturement a person was free to go his way. But where? Most had only the most rudimentary skills and employment wasn't particularly lucrative. They pushed out to the edges of the colonies to virgin land not already settled. They cut their farms from the wilderness. Those who followed had to travel even farther West to find land to settle.
Eventually, politicians did what they have always done and lined their own pockets with policies, taxes, and laws which favored the plantationists. Poor farmers couldn't pay their taxes got the boot and their prime farmland sold dirt cheap to a new plantationist. Those families were pushed into the rocky hills and became the hillbillies of Appalachia. And that pattern continued throughout the whole pre-Antibellum period. So, where could these poor people go? The none arable land in the hills, cut off from town for trade because the rich man who stole your land also owns the road and charges you to use it, if at all? Or the unsecure and hostile Indian territories?
There are very real reasons why people kept moving West, and it had little to do with their personal character, and everything to do with people looking for a better life than being someone else's hireling (and in the South that wasn't much of a step above a slave).
As an American, I feel that we are categorized as “white, non-Hispanic” which makes me feel very homogenous and disconnected from my family’s culture. I’ve always been fascinated with Scotland and it’s history (which is why I love watching your videos, Bruce). Scottish Americans want to belong, which is why they are interested in clans and want to identify with Scottish heritage. Speaking of which, Robert the Bruce is my 22nd great- grandfather 😊.
Well, as far as I can tell, you nailed it. I've only recently started on my journey of exploring my heritage. I'm proud to say that my great grandfather was, in fact, honest and truly... an Ulster man from Belfast, who worked as a butcher until he came to the States, and continued working as a butcher.
We'll aye need meat
As a Australian Sinclair.. I say the Scots are th e greatest people t o ever populate the earth.. long live e the Scots...
And for saying you've exaggerated a million times 🤣
Charlie boy! I have a strong suspicion you are a fellow nationalist...am I right?
That was the joke.
This channel is never what I expect it to be. Oh, yes, there is good history here with excellent story telling, but also... so many delightful surprises along the way. I do love your outlook and commentaries.
My understanding of Jock Tamson, is that he was a missionary and "was frutiful" yielding generations abroad with a suntan, but a Scots name. Essentially we're all related if you go back far enough, none better than the other, and a good excuse for a Drink. I was visiting America and my American mate mentioned he was adopted, and gave his Birth name. 10 minutes of google and we had the village his family came from in Scotland, his tartan and we took him down 2 villas to where our other Scots mate was staying. His wifes' maiden name was the same as my American mates'. "Come meet your cousin!" She sent over the family tree. He was blown away and gifted with an anchor to his own ancestry that he'd felt was lacking and named an Honourary Scot... One of us. Americans= Scots with funny accents. Canadians= Scots with funny accents. Australians/New Zealand= Scots with funny accents. Scotlands biggest export= People. My lot came over from County Down 1854 after the famine....but the name is Scots. Irish= 1st cousins. Welsh, =quite probably first cousins. Gaelic is related. Had some Americans visit here at work for a while and after a few days, advised that if a complete stranger nods in work and says "morning" it's okay to look them square in the eye and nod "morning" back. Had to de-programme them a bit. Really liking the videos.
I saw a movie where someone commented about how so many children were born with red hair, when the men were gone fighting, and the preacher dude had red hair. :)
As an American, in rural or southern America, we have a "pleasant culture" where people say Hi, good morning, talk to strangers, etc. The large cities, not so much
when you're from a large city, especially on the east coast like NY, Baltimore, Boston, etc..... People don't normally say Good morning, hello, etc.
1). It's so many people you pass, it would get tiring and waste so much time when your busy. So you just walk past strangers constantly, and it's normal to never nod, say hello, etc.
2). It's a very fast pace of life, and people are always busy and on the move. So pleasantries are very rare, except among close friends or people you work closely with.
even waiting In lines at a grocery store or bank. In rural America they'll talk to other customers, to cashier's, etc.
In the city, not so much except to place an order
@@masstv9052 I grew up in a very rural area in the Northern states and I had been taught not to communicate with strangers, so when we moved down south and people I didn't know said, "hey" I assumed they were talking to some one else and went on my way. I overheard oneguy say to another, "oh, she must be one of those rude city slickers". In light of what you said it makes sense, cause actually the town in Georgia was larger than the little farm town I came from so I just shook my head and thought, "Ignorant southerners. Least they didn't call me a Yankee or something." But, they were merely being hospital and I missed it. I suppose that's how any form of racism works...based on misunderstanding.
@@melissahdawn
I know what you mean.
Most people outside of America (and even many Americans, who most never even leave their state or city)
don't realize just how large the USA is, and even though we share an "American culture" we also have individual cultures, accents, etc spread across a vast nation.
Most of our states are larger than many European countries.
So yeah, we have the "stereotype American" , but culturally, & ethnically we are very, very diverse.
I was born in Baltimore, and moved down south for some years to a rural North Carolina town (where the main downtown was literally 2 blocks) and also to Daytona Beach Florida which was typical "Florida Man Rednecks or Northern Snow Birds".
But each was vastly different culturally than where I was born and raised in a large, mixed city.
Same as border towns in Texas & Mexico, with Tex-Mex culture. Very different than someone from NY.
@@masstv9052 I say challenge that city shit and start small talk wherever you go, say hi to strangers whenever you feel like it.
Well, my 104 year old aunt just wrote and told me that there is Scots blood in us, and talked about her great grandmother in the Carolinas. She had come as an indentured servant, but eventually married and lost the family name. I have no claim to anybody famous, but a lad I was talking to last week explained that I must feel bad being so far adrift, where as he, being French, was directly descended from Charlemagne.
Your history stories have been very enlightening, and give me a profound perspective on the history of Scotland.
(By the way, I AM a direct descendant of Uff, a neanderthal chieftain,)
If I hear about this Uff guy ONE MORE TIME ! 😁
Virtually everyone of European descent is a direct descendant of Charlemagne.
I've just recently discovered your channel. Your content is a balm for my weary mind at day's end. I have identified as a Scot since highschool when my sister traced our family tree. It's a thing we do in this country that went from infancy straight into senility with no intervening years. Our society has been called "the melting pot." If you add too many ingredients to a stew it becomes difficult to differentiate the various components. "Was that a potato or some rutabaga, pea or green bean, chicken or anything else?" When you are as bland as beige any cultural signpost will do. I enjoy many products from many cultures but I feel the need to call some thing as MINE. I am probably more Swiss or German than Scottish but my mom was an Edie. Her father's family came to America in time to fight the British in the Revolution. Now that's worth taking to heart. Bruce, you are more Scottish than I'll ever be and I want to learn from you. Also, I will steal jokes when I think they will play for great unwashed.
I recently found your channel through Tasting History, and it was amazing timing, because I had realized that despite my lifelong love and interest in Scotland, as an American, I hadn't looked much up online. Not like I do with my interest in Japan, which is in no way ancestral for me. For me, Scotland is so near and dear because I listened to stories from my grandmother, who moved to the states drom Scotland in the late 50s/early 60s. I asked her for stories all the time, and she always called it home, and that fostered all my love for it, even through her stories about being poor and living in the slums. It was always close to home, and I still have living relatives there I would like to meet. Frankly, I've never looked beyond the ancestors my grandmother could directly tell me about. But I found this video very thoughtful, perceptive, and interesting. And I appreciate all the things I'm learning from your videos. It also hits home that you do start most videos by saying "let me tell you a story" because it reminds me so much of asking my grandmother for hers, and hearing her say a similar thing in a similar accent. Thank you for all your knowledge and thoughtfulness, and for sharing these stories.
As an American with some scattered Scottish ancestry, what I think is happening has to do with being an American of European descent. As an American of European descent, I can trace my time on the land back only as far as someone arriving here, probably through Ellis Island, a few generations ago. To find a deep connection to a land, I have to go back farther, and at that point, my ancestry is all over the place (Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Netherlands). I think there is more anxiety and uncertainty around ancestry in America (at least among those of European descent - other folks have other issues in addition to this), and so there is more of an emphasis on finding a great historical figure in our lineage. It makes sense to me that this would be stereotypical American behavior from the point of view of someone from Scotland.
I'm second generation American. My grandparents can here from Scotland. I'm proud of my Scottish heritage. I love learning the history of Scotland and my genealogy. My brother was named after Robert the Bruce.
Ok
He was actually named after Robert the Williams king of 90s pop
Having lived abroad for 10 years before coming back home to Scotland, my thoughts are that way you live away from Scotland and you have a connection to Scotland you see things differently. I now see Scotland in a different light after being away. I now feel I love Scotland more and have become more patriotic while I lived abroad.
As a Scot living in Vietnam, I can relate.
What's the difference between an Australian boomerang and a Scottish boomerang? An Australian boomerang comes back. A Scottish boomerang only sings about coming back 😂
@@ScotlandHistoryTours ha ha ha ha
@@ScotlandHistoryTours i came back bruce
@@kevinreillydenmylne So did I. And I was saddened by what I found after 22 years away...
Just wanted to say that I loved this video. The first video I have seen from on this Channel; hope to watch more. I don't have any immediate thoughts for or against the observations, theories, or opinions made, I just enjoyed the narrative journey that was taken - it planted a seed that may germinate into an observation or opinion of my own one day. Thank you.
Good Questions, thank you for bringing interesting facts and entertainment to Scottish history. I'd like to point out you probably have an over representation of Americans who are passionate about history and heritage because of the subjects you cover. (Myself included). There isn't very much shared identity here in America, but relatives arrived some time, or were perhaps already here. (Those claims get really murky too). So "When did the family get here" becomes part of our shared identity.
I can't claim Robert the Bruce as a Relative. I'm much more comfortable with John Thompson, Oh, and one of his relatives was William Thompson !
Thanks for all you do.
It's also about referance for history. When you live in Scotland your a stone's throw away from something that's older than America has been an independent country.
I go over the Hyndford Bridge in Lanark quite often. There's a sign on it saying it was built in 1773.
most scots are more viking than celt
all the plundering and rapage......gotta love a bit of plundering and rapage
You could say the same for any country in Europe. There's nothing remotely special about the Scottish aspect.
@@paulgrant5543 There's no such thing as Celt. It's a made up thing. It doesn't exist either genetically or ethnically.
It's a plastic cultural thing to which no one alive today actually bears any resemblance to at all.
A Scotsman claiming he's a Celt is just as sad and pathetic as an American claiming he's "Scotch".
I know this is a bit old, but I just recently found this channel.
To me, as an American putting it into laymen’s terms, I view the American drive to find out our ancestry similar to a young kid wanting to find out more about their parent that passed away at a young age, before they got to know them. Not everyone cares to know, but those who do dig quite a bit.
It was awesome to find out that my dad was a firefighter when I was a little kid. Then when I became a firefighter in the US Marine Corps, he gave me a local history book about my local town that had his dad & uncle in it, also firefighters & Veterans. Now my dad wasn’t a Veteran, but all four of us had been firefighters & 3/4 in the service. Something like a family legacy if you will.
I think the closest we get to a communal mentality is when it’s USA vs anyone else. Because we are so diverse, we attempt to find communities of like minds & it’s exciting when we find someone that cares about something we do.
I love the scenery in your videos. Your information is just great and your sense of humor is lovely.
Hehehe great video! I am a new viewer from Norway, but with a long fascination for Americans, America and its history. You made some many good points here. I think most of us Europeans can really feel a commonality here. Even if Scotts and Norwegians are quite different people, I think there is this divide between people of the old country and countries founded by settlers like America, Canada, Australia etc.
I think both Scotts and Norwegians do have more of that communal or group thinking about our people and history vs the individualistic American perspective. Although I do spot some differences. I think Scandinavians in general don't think about our history bitterly the way maybe Scotts and Irish do. Norway was ruled by Denmark for 400 years, but they where never as brutal as the English, so there is simply not the same kind of bitter memory.
I think Norwegians remember history more like Americans in terms of what cool stuff we might have done. Especially in Viking times. Yet a key difference is that there is less thought of what did "MY" ancestors do, but more about what did "OUR" ancestors do. For everybody around you in Norway, you know we got mostly the same heritage, so we all share in the same history, while every American family might have a very different ancestral tale and thus think more in terms of what "THEIR" ancestors did.
And honestly I think Norwegians are more excited about their American history than their Norwegian one. Most families are exited to speculate on what happened to the part of the family which went to America or those who came back. Growing up, the stories that excited me and my brother the most was about my great grandfather who went to America and built railroad tracks in the Wild West. That seemed more relatable than what some distant related Viking chieftain might have done a thousand years ago.
That difference in emphasis on "my" versus "our" brought with it a reminder from my English lessons...
I had to learn to say things like _"my_ father" in English, instead of "our father" like I would in Czech. It was straight up a point in a book all about mistakes Czechs make in English... written by a Canadian.
It's one of those things so deeply rooted in the culture and language you never think about it until you're confronted with a culture that does it differently. I have two sisters, of course he's not just _my_ father, sort of thing.
Brilliant video as always and I think all of your points have significant merit. I can only add my observations as one single INDIVIDUAL American, but I think part of the reason some in the US might have a greater interest in our family lineage may lie in the fact that our nation's entire history is within the "modern" era. There's a definable point at which we became America, and Americans. And whether they arrived by wooden sailing vessel after a months long voyage from England, or a cramped steamer from Sicily, at some point in the tantalizingly recent past, ALL of our semi-recent ancestors embarked on a grand, courageous adventure. I was born and raised in Indiana with a clearly English last name, but none of my family members still alive during my lifetime knew where we came from except for old tales of Ohio and Pennsylvania. For me, and I suspect others, there was a curiosity of when, where, and who were the first. Where were our distant kin when the nation erupted into existence? What drove them here and what distant shores did they leave? I would also suspect that you hear from Americans with noteworthy ancestors, because the ones who tend to speak up are usually the ones who can claim ties to someone other than Jack Thompson. As for me, I've found a few noteworthy cousins, but like everyone else, there are 100 Jack Thompsons in the family tree for every person remembered by history. But maybe we see a certain inherent nobility in those common farmers that made the first plow-mark in some patch of the frontier that's now a Wal-Mart parking lot and are drawn to looking back to see where those qualities sprang from. And we love a good story. Probably why we listen to you tell them.
My ancestors came from Washington hundreds of years ago, I'm actually distantly related to Great Red Spot
😂
Do you no mean Jupiter then?
Thank you Mr. Fummey. I love all history and especially your videos.
"John Thomas is a dick and he's English!" That really got me 🤣🤣🤣
I literally just got to that point in the video and roared with laughter as I read your comment, too. How did that line no get more shout outs in the comments 🤷🏼♀️😂
Sad because its true, my dads side had 8 generations of "John Thomas"'s. (And a clarification for foreigners who may not know - John Thomas is slang for penis)
I joined 23 and me in an attempt to find my real father and I did what I also found was that I have more relatives in the city of Glasgow than I do in America, despite the fact that I have at least three generations of American history
Bruce I've got to agree with you here. My granddaddy immigrated to America from Sanday Island in 1912 and one of our greatest family legends is that his original ticket across the pond was on the Titanic's second voyage - timing is everything. My old man was enthralled with Scottish culture he liked the idea of tartans, kilts and clans. But, truth be told I'm sure Grandpa's family was probably to poor to be concern with tartans and to cold to wear a kilt. After watching your channel, and from other sources, it is apparent that there is a greater likelihood that I'm related to Ragnar Lodbrok as opposed to Robert the Bruce....so, I'll gladly claim Jock Tamson as my kin.
Jock often speaks about you
@@ScotlandHistoryTours Bruce hae you Din a vid on Jock Tamson. There is a plaque to him in the Kirk yaird at Daily in Ayrshire where he was Minister. No only wis he a legend in the parenting field he was a notable landscape artist of his time .
My maternal grandfather was from Sanday too; we must be very closely related, as a small island like ours was pretty inbred (or the more politically correct term nowadays "genetic confluence"). Hello cousin!
Aye, we're a' Jock Tamson's bairns - and followers of the Bruce's witty, thoughtful and educational videos.
Hello, I have recently discovered your videos and would like to give a perspective as someone who lives in America. non-native Americans are currently experiencing a deep and somewhat traumatic identity crisis. They are desperate for a sense of identity that holds everyone together.
This is hard for people outside the US to understand. You might say "but you're American!". The problem is that "American is not an acceptable identity within America. If you go up to someone in America and say "Where are you from? Where is your family from?" and they say "America" Then most people's assumption is that either you're Native American or you're a racist. There's just no good way to go around calling yourself an "American" in America. And because we have such a huge diversity here, Americans tend to ask "Where is your family from?" or the slightly less polite "what are you?" constantly to one another and everyone they meet. We all get very used to trying to answer that question, which means that we also tend to develop very simplified answers that list a few different nationalities or ethnicities that we can briefly list off when people ask us. That also means that we tend to define ourselves by those identities a lot more than any kind of pan-american identity. Pan-americanism is seen as an almost taboo by the left, and as a fetish by the nationalist right. In both cases, Americans are desperately grasping for anything they can latch onto as an identity which they can call their own. The left latches onto largely romanticized ancestral ethnicities and anything other than America. The right latches onto a romanticized dream of America. Both latch onto fantasies that give them something to believe in.
However, When non-Americans hear us say we're "from" their country. They get confused and often offended. They tend to view us as "Americans" Even though we don't view ourselves as Americans. They don't understand that "American" is a taboo identity for us because of our history with Native Americans. Even the nationalist right will often say "we're proud to be from X European country" when they're pushed on it. Because they still grew up with stories from their parents or grandparents about some kind of ancestral homeland that exists "somewhere else" out in the world. But non-americans, not understanding any of this, simply see it as Americans trying to bullsht their own family's history for attention. And some are, don't get me wrong. But I've seen so many Americans get cursed out or called liars by everyone from the rest of the world because they simply repeat whatever their grandparents told them. And it's definitely not just European Americans. I've observed this with African Americans Asian Americans and a hell of a lot of other smaller more specific groups as well. Each of them will go to a community of some sort looking for identity, something to latch onto that tells them who they are and how to be, what their ancestral traditions are, and they come out of it being cursed out and called a fake. But no matter what, they can never really call themselves just plain "American" to other Americans. They will always be asked "yeah but like, where are you from originally? like where's your family from?" It's built into American culture so inherently to think of ourselves as separate peoples, that we cannot accept the idea of a pan-american identity.
The problem lately is that most younger Americans are to the point where we're so mixed with different ethnicities that we need an entire musical number to list them all. We're becoming a true "American" race of our own but nobody can accept that because it undermines the entire power structure. The right-wing is built on a notion of racial purity, and the left-wing is also built on the idea that everyone is separate but equal or is only a fusion of two things. A lot of Americans passed two things long ago. But if they accept that then most of the groups lose their political influence. That's why you get people arguing about what group identity should be "dominant" in a person.
In conclusion, I'm sorry this comment is so f*cking long but I wanted to try to explain this because it's something important to me and to Americans in general. I think it's important for the people outside to understand why Americans do this constantly. Go to pretty much any comments section on a video or article about any ethnic identity and you'll find an American saying "I'm X% this ethnicity and proud" and a native person of that ethnic identity saying "no you aren't shut up". And I guarantee the Americans always come out of it feeling angry and like they have to prove themselves as that ethnicity even more. Meaning they dig in their heels and just become louder and more obnoxious about it.
I hope this helps explain it better.
I really do t know about your family history bit let me let you know a little about my family if it's OK. First and foremost wa are American through and through. We have been here since the beginning of time. Well one side has anyway. We are a military family who has fought in e every war since the Civil War. We are als Oklahomans since the 1830s. Don't really know if we come from royalty but my kids do on my wives side(Spanish I beleive). IT IS NOT A SHAME TO BE AMERICAN it's a true mark of pride.
@@josephcampbell2400 Thank you and well said.
I was going to type a long-winded reply to this video, but damn, you nailed it. As “Americans”, we/I are constantly looking for ways to identify and classify ourselves. We’re all “Heinz 57”/mutts with a diverse ethnic/genetic history. America is “the great melting pot”, for better and worse. That does leave us with a deficient sense of belonging to any particular culture from “the old country”, but it also has its advantages.
What indeed, does it mean to be an “American”? No one can really say. But everyone wants to belong. So we Americans tend to grab onto what older identities we can, because “American” isn’t really an identity per se. “Identity” literally means “one”. As in, we’re all the same. And Americans are certainly not all the same. And yes, we really are descended from the same Scots, English, Irish, Germans, Italians, Spanish, Africans, Asians, pick your nationality, that a “real/pure” person from those countries who still lives there is descended from. We’re not making that shit up.
In the end though, all of this nationalism and tribalism doesn’t do us a lot of good as human beings. We all have common Hominid ancestors who left the Rift Valley of East Africa some 60,000 years ago, an eye-blink in geological time. Our ancestry should be more of a historical curiosity than a reason to divide and pit people against each other. I think the problem is that we humans are hard-wired in our DNA to be hostile towards the “other”, the stranger. We want everyone to be just like us and ours. If you look, talk, act, worship, etc. differently - then you are at best, strange, and at worst, someone who needs killing. This hostility towards the ‘other’ was a feature back in the primordial origins of our species. It could keep you alive, and was therefore selected for genetically. Now in our modern international and overpopulated society, that hostility is a bug. The better angels of our nature need to become stronger. There, I wrote a somewhat long-winded response anyway. Love your channel, Bruce! My wife is much more of a Scot than I am though - she’s got Stewart/Stuart ancestors, and is descended from Mary Queen of Scots! (Typical American, grrrr….) I’m more English/Northumbrian and German. We figure our ancestors were killing each other and stealing each other’s cattle back in the day!😂
Couldn't have said this better
@@josephcampbell2400 Noticed a big difference here. As a Texan myself, I am a Texan FIRST, and an American second. Funny how state pride is. Also (and this is a joke) if I was from Oklahoma, I'd definitely tell everyone I was American and try to avoid mentioning my state 🤣
You make so many great points. I love the way you broke it down. As an American whose family has only been here 6 -8 generations I do want to why my ancestors came here (mostly from Scotland and Ireland). The Isles are such a beautiful place. Why did they leave their homeland and family? What was their life like there? Then of course the cultural stuff like music, dance, dress, art and food is all fascinating. How much of that culture is still alive in the way I live, act and think? Does the fact that what I really desire to own in this life is highland land and cattle something inbedded in my DNA? Haha!!!! In this great melting pot we call the USA I think many of us still long to know about the places our people came from.
I think you are spot on. As an American with ancestors on both sides on your Isle I can appreciate the struggles and innovation of all. Americans in general mostly are concerned with themselves. It’s a “me first” state of mind here.
Hey Bruce, just watched this somewhat belatedly. I like to look at my ancestry as a story, a rich tapestry, some of which is Scottish, other English and Irish. My father was born in India, as was his father etc. back about 100 years. They were in the regiments until '46 when the family returned to the UK. We live in Australia now, but I grew up in England. My sister likes to concentrate on individuals and has a chart dating back 150 years of who begat who, but I like to try and collect the stories of the lives they might have lived. Hence my interest in your channel. Thanks and keep up the great work.
As an American, I think you hit the nail on the head about Americans searching for a sense of identity because we are immigrants ourselves. And then put that together with your point about people wanting their own heritage to be grandiose because we want to feel important. The same goes for those in America who claim Irish heritage.
the ULSTER SCOTS (aka "Irish Presbyterians" ) MADE the U.S.A. , period. They were Irish +Scottish technically. All americans (u.s.) need to know this, its pathetic that its glossed over and only painted in a negative light. They won the friggin Revolution. You're welcome! maybe we all should re-evaluate and make sure to label "Americans" (u.s.) as those who actually were here and fought the revolution and founded the orginal colonies...
"American" or UK/Scottish etc means Nothing if you can just move to a place, become a citizen (national citizenship) and call yourself "Scottish" or "American"... its not black and white like that at all.
Scots that haes wae Wallace Bled (Robert Burns)
I am a Wallace. Modern day nationalities (citizenship)
doesnt take away a persons Heritage! how preposterous and blatantly hypocritical to state such!
Plus, don't forget, as an American, you believe the history that has been issued to you, which as you well know is only believed in the US.
@@jimmyarbutus2555 you arrogant nincompoop (better but less polite words available). As if the Scotts, English, French, and Romans don’t make up history to suit themselves as they went along. FFS the Tudors only settled on which of Richard III’s shoulders had the hump after Shakespeare wrote his play. I distinctly remember being verbally assaulted about the US failure in Indochina back in 1976 - by a FRENCHMAN. Dien Bien Phu anyone? Our biggest mistake was taking the side of the French in the first place.
The only non-immigrants are Native Americans ,they are indigenous to the Americas 🌎 they were and still are American before the arrival of Europeans and the introduction to English as an official language of the United States
So I may have one of the most English names there are, though a great aunt had (apparently) claimed we were somehow related to the late Princess Diana (yeah no), all I knew was English, German, and Sicilian. Braveheart impacted me very deeply, and spiritually (as Randall Wallace, author of the screenplay, has said "story of Christ in a kilt"), that it lead me to take bagpipe lessons, try to teach myself Scots Gaelic (one of many failures in my life), create an independent studies history course in undergrad on early Scottish history, and I almost married a girl from Stirling (we were engaged), and nearly moved to Scotland. I got a little carried away. I had no reason to be obsessed with my ancestry because as far as I knew, I didn't have any Scottish blood (even though whenever I heard the pipes I'm sure the bits of Scottish blood began boil a bit as if I had a massive shot of caffeine). So my heart broke when I read of the clearing of the Highlands and its aftermath in things like Alexander Carmichael's introduction to 'Carmina Gadelica' (published 1899). Reading about the nasty effects of colonial Britain on Scotland were more than upsetting, as well as the damage done by raging reformist post Knox Scotland where ministers convinced people to "burn their bagpipes and burn their fiddles." It still pains me, as a musician and a songwriter/composer to think of it. The dying of the Celtic Christian way of life and the Gaelic prayers that were passed down to Alexander Carmichael had almost all but come to an end due to those atrocities, and its painful to know that, but I'm so grateful that Alexander caught some of these songs and prayers that we can have those treasures like 'A Rune Before Prayer.' Now thanks to Ancestry I found a little bit of Scottish blood in my family's history. One potential, but I couldn't go any further than Canada (I'm American), was amusingly Jemima McConnell (yes, imagine bagpipes and maple syrup). The others were Campbells, which I've come to learn is the most hated clan in the Highlands! Go figure, and I suppose in a perfectly Scottish self deprecating way, it seems appropriate that that should be my Scottish heritage, ha! But I'm happy regardless of whether there is any in my blood or whether its the most hated clan or not. As someone who now has his master's degree in Intercultural Studies, I love culture, and especially Scottish Culture. Past, and present. The world is a far richer place because Scotland is. I care about the continuation of the Gaelic language, just as much as the continuation of the Lakota language, both made illegal at different times in each of our countries' history. So, where does that make me fit on the spectrum of an American vs. Scottish view of history? I'm not sure, perhaps one of y'all could tell me what you think. This already way to long of a comment, but I felt it worth while to share. Cheers.
Enjoyed reading your comment as with many others on here. I am a Scot well Scottish born and bred but we were never taught any of our Scottish history in school it's all English based history that's taught in schools I have learnt so much from this channel. Never looked into my family tree maybe I should? Don't have a clue about Gaelic although my wife is fluent as she's from the outer Hebrides , only use for me to have it is in her family's company they switch so easily from Gaelic to English in the same conversation kinda feels like they are talking about you lol
whispered in a small voice.."my maternal Grandmother was a Campbell, we may be related".....Being Scottish is not simply a physical thing, it's a state of mind and the essential right of any sentient being with the capacity to understand the concept and to desire it with all their heart. I name you an Honourary Scot. ...... Right, your round at the Bar....:-)
You shouldn't read so much into banning pipes in Scotland and all that because it isn't true, they were still widely used and in Scottish regiments in the British army.
In fact bagpipes weren't even a major part of Scottish identity at that time.
The English had been playing bagpipes up to the 18th Century and in reality the only pipes played in the 14th Century were in Edwards army not Scotland's.
DNA test says 60% Scottish, 40% English. I have a strong desire to subjugate myself.
Aye
I would have a desire to get my money back on that DNA test lol. The English part makes no sense due to the fact we are a Heinz baked bean no 57 variety lol
Same, my man. As someone who is also part Scottish and English, this comment has me weak. XD
😂🤣 JW Hicks I have the same English/Scottish DNA results... And our North American desire is to connect to our history because every one is so different. (Just an aside, but I think that’s why people like me did not particularly notice or even think about the Color of Bruce’s skin while he talks about Scottish history. It just isn’t unusual to us)
that's how you get hairy palms.
Fun video topic man. I'm just discovering your stuff, but it's all been fascinating. You've helped me understand a culture I was never privy to or brought up in. But the echoes, man. The echoes are insane.
I think you have some good thoughts Bruce. I would add that a lot of us in the US feel a bit "culturally adrift" for reasons you brought up. So we look toward our respective Old Countries for an anchor point.
The whole reason the u.s. exists is because of the history of the religious /civil wars of the 1600's in uk/ireland! Scottish history and Ulster -scottish history IS American history. The fact that I was withheld being taught my own (our ) history growing up in the U.S. is a tragedy.
@@AAA-fh5kd Good point for emphasis. 👍
A little behind listening to your tours, enjoying them all. I have pondered the question why north Americans are more clannish than home country Scots. Might have to do with when they come to north America. Clanship mattered more then. Homeland Scots evolved away from that mindset. But Scots in a new land filling up with people from everywhere that identity was a useful come bond. Clans that fueded in Scotland were bound together by clan ties in north America.
You most definitely have an odd family. People stuck in their homeland have it almost impossible to separate from their family groups, whereas people who drifted across an ocean can ditch their kin the first time someone gets a bit drunk and mouthy at a birthday party or on payday, whichever comes first.
Hello from Canada! Well, as you can see by my icon, I have a very strong personal attachment to my (Sinclair) family's scottish heritage. That's what drew me to your most excellent channel.
I agree with your idea that over here we often seek ways to differentiate ourselves from others.
To that point, Canadians live in North America, but never, ever refer to us as 'Americans'. That gets up our noses pretty quick! 🤣
Don't worry, I know what it's like living above a bigger neighbour, That's why I very definitely didn't call you Americans and distinguished between the cultural difference between the two as well. You're safe😜
Strictly speaking, the Sinclair family crest is only allowed to be displayed by members of the family of the Earl of Caithness - it is not a general crest/ badge for anyone called Sinclair. These days unscrupulous souvenir makers have highjacked the very serious business of heraldry...
The tartan is different as most are Victorian fakes, don't have confirmed origins pre-dating the mid-19th century and were often named after whomever bought the first batch of a new sett.
@@douglasherron7534 Well then, I'm in some sort of trouble, 'cause I have the Sinclair family crest tattoo'd to my arm! 😊
@@TheCthulhu1 Lol, I don't think you need to cut your arm off!! XD
It's a common misconception, pushed by the makers of "family" crests, that a coat of arms may be displayed/ wore by anyone with that particular surname - but this is completely false. The Sinclair coat of arms was granted to a particular branch of the Sinclair family who were originally Barons of Roslin (I assume you've heard of Rosslyn Chapel?) but are now also Earls of Caithness. The determination of who gets a coat of arms and who has the right to bear it is made by 'The Lord Lyon King of Arms' in Scotland if you're interested to find out more...
Great topic and we’ll handled. Interesting, I’ll have to mull it over. Thanks.