Expert: Thomas H McIntyre - 1/6/2007

Question
When ws the largest Scots immigration and where did they settle in the (now ) USA ?

Answer
Hi Barbara:
 Your question is a little difficult to answer.  Most would consider that about 250,000 Scots-Irish who were descendants of Ulster-Scots and immigrated mainly between 1717 and 1770 into the Philadelphia area as the largest immigration.  These immigrants settled in the Appalachians between Pennsylvania and Georgia.  They called themselves Irish at first but were Protestants who had immigrated from Scotland, according to Kirby Miller: "Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America" (1988).
 According to Roland Tappan Berthoff, "British Immigration in Industrial America, 1790-1950" Cambridge: Harvard, University Press 1953. The largest immigrants from Scotland came 1881-1890, about 139,869 and then again from 1921 to 1030 when about 159,781 immigrated.  These immigrants mainly came to North-Eastern United States and Canada, many moving to the midwest where land was cheap and work plentiful.
 Much of the immigration in the period from 1790 to about 1860 are unfortunately inexact and many moved back and forth from Canada to United States when the borders were not as patrolled around the Great Lakes as they are at present.
I hope this give you some insight into Scottish Immigration into the United States.
 Sincerely;
 Thomas McIntyre