The people who settled Virginia, when all was Virginia had some differences that help in distinguishing them from each other.
English
__Cluster on plantations
__Younger sons of great families
__Marry within their social class
__Maintain households with servants—may be indentured, often related to the family
__Land holdings in more than one county; more than one state
__May be Quaker or Baptist before it is legal to practice their religion
Scots
__Merchants and their factors (almost always related to the family)
__Concentrated along rivers and major roads: trade routes
__Trade with the Indians and intermarry with them (called alliances)
__Do not fight the Indians
__Purchase plantations as a seat of operations and to qualify to vote
__Usually not soldiers
__Rely on others to prefer, appoint, recommend, and aid
__Not frontiersmen per se, arrange trade zones and centers around their residences
__Employ only their own relatives!
__May be Loyalists—low legal profile, stay out of public eye
Welsh
__Clannish, congregate in “Welsh tracts”
__Acquire landholdings—land is essential for an on-going pedigree in Wales and that characteristic is brought to America when they come
__Immediate family members often have different surnames—versions
of the same patronymic or metronymic
__Migrate in groups of families, usually interrelated before they move
Scots-Irish—also called Ulstermen, Ulster Scots
__Protestants who lived in Scotland and settled in Ireland before coming to America–one or more generations in Ireland.
__Neither Scots nor Irish as a race, their origins are shrouded in the mists
of Eastern Europe; tartans have been found in the hoarfrost of Western China
__Frontiersmen, always pushing westward away from the crowds
__Willing to fight—in court for their rights, in battle for their freedom
__Willing to fight the Indians for control of lands
__Attend church, religious participation is a passion. They accepted their relationship with God by Covenant before they left Scotland; they taught their children the same relationship with God
__Marry within their own blood, brothers frequently marry sisters to keep their lands and property within the family
__Own land wherever they settle—move on quickly if owning land is not an option, or if land ownership requires too much chaos
Indian
__Includes Melungeon background—VA, NC, TN, and into KY
__Cherokee most common; Shawnee, Iroquois including Seneca, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole (less common), Choctaw, smaller tribes from NC and SC
__May speak English from the time of early settlement
__Identified as “free people of color” or “all other free persons” on censuses; also classified as “mulatto” and of “mixed blood” in records
__20% of the American people have Native American blood in their veins
__Ally themselves with frontiersmen
German
__Settle on the outskirts of the other groups on self-contained farms
__Often Anabaptist by religion: Dunkards, Mennonites, Brethren, Schwenckfelders, as well as German Reformed and Lutheran
__Law-abiding, willing to pay fines for refusal to muster and fight
__Attend court-days, serve on road details and juries willingly
__Culturally adaptive, very compatible with Scots-Irish, often intermarry
Huguenot
__Merge identity into other groups so they do not call attention to
themselves—even attend whatever church is nearby (except Roman Catholic), although they prefer the Reformed religion
__Origins in Europe—Switzerland, Italy, German provinces, Netherlands where they fled for refuge from French persecution. So while considered French, they are almost always something else too
__Usually speak English before coming to America–indicating that they spent time in England or Ireland
__Low legal profile, stay out of public eye if possible–unwilling to fight if it calls attention to themselves
Do any of these sound like your ancestors? Review the information you have collected on your Virginia ancestors–who do they most closely fit? Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://arleneeakle.com
PS I have developed several NEW presentations on Virginia and Southern Research. Watch for the posting of these topics on my Home Page. If your group needs a speaker–I may be available.