I have traced my fathers family back to the highlands of Scotland and the Chattan confederation.
The confederation was designed to offset the numerical advantage the lowland Scots had over the highlanders.
When the English “unified” the island under their rule my ancestors remained true Scotsmen and continued to be a PITA to the crown.
My ancestors were rounded up and shipped off to Virginia in the new American colonies.
My mom’s family is pure English on her mothers side but her fathers family originated in Germany along the Rhine river.
Back when England was as much swampland as farmland someone had the bright idea of bringing some Germans from along the Rhine to England and paying them to drain the swamps since they had done such a good job in Germany.
Granddads family took the job and went to England. Once they spent a few years in England they decided to stay and took part of their pay in land.
Once the colonies opened up an enterprising younger son decided to cross the ocean and make his way here.
This genealogy thing can be fun if you want to put the time into it.
I once heard campgrounds referred to as “an eclectic mix of Drysdales and Clampetts” by a campground owner.
Being a people person I love them.
I got into genealogy hoping to find a living cousin who would have the book of poetry of my father’s that my mother told me about. Didn’t find one who had it, though I did eventually find the book, but I met so many wonderful genealogy cousins. People who share the passion are such lovely people.
It sounds like we have very similar heritage. Scotch, English and German. Mother always said we were Heinz 57, so we’ve got a lot more drips and drabs of other cultures. My Livingston Scot was sufficiently difficult that he escaped Scotland for safety in Amsterdam in the 1600s. He married into Dutch and German. My English/Scots on the other side came to Charlotte County Virginia around 1740-60.