The term Scots-Irish refers to people whose ancestors, often Presbyterian, originated in Scotland and settled, during the 17thcentury, in Ireland in the nine northern counties of the Province of Ulster: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone in Northern Ireland and Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. They are also called Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots. Today, it is a matter of personal preference to refer to these people as Scotch-Irish, Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots; in Northern Ireland they are generally referred to as Ulster-Scots and in the United States as either Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish.
100,000 Scottish migrants settled in Ireland during the 17th century Plantation of Ulster, and between 1717 and the beginning of the War of American Independence in 1776, 250,000 Scots-Irish immigrants arrived in the British Colonies in North America. Today, the numbers of Americans with Scots-Irish roots could be as high as 20 million as many ‘Scotch-Irish’ will have recorded their ancestral origins as Irish.
The following websites will be of interest to those with Scots-Irish ancestry:
1. 'The Scots in Ulster' website developed by the Ulster Historical Foundation,
https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/the-scots-in-ulster/home2, ‘Ulster Settlers’ database, described as a ‘research tool for the study of 17th-century Ulster and its inhabitants,’ can be examined at
https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie/