Mary Artiemissa was not Elly May

I have been stewing for the past couple of days over the last lecture in my family history class. The subject was the social history of the Scotch-Irish culture in America. I absorbed everything the teacher delivered because much of my ancestry lies within the hills of the Upcountry of South Carolina, in names such as Murphy, Moore, Madden, and Garvin.

The teacher, Katherine Scott Sturdevant, pretty well-known among historians and genealogists, began with an overview of where the Scotch-Irish came from by describing their existence in Scotland and their migration over to Ireland, noting the Scots were a warring people and not adverse at all to removing the current residents of Ireland in order to claim the land. She compared it to what happened on this continent to the Indians by the large amount of Scotch-Irish immigrants.

She then painted a picture of these immigrants--products of their wild and barbarian ancestry. She says that by settling in the hills of America's back country, they remained in this wild state for generations. Even to this day, in the more rural and remote parts of the country, she says, those of Scotch-Irish heritage tend to be earthy, stubborn, rebellious, and unrefined.

She mentioned figures such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. These were Kentucky and Tennessee frontiersmen. I read a description recently of the typical backwoodsman which wasn't very flattering. It was written long ago by one who would have met men like Boone and Crockett. I'd like to find that quote again.

Ms. Sturdevant gave several examples of the hillbilly way of life, none of them flattering. When I asked if there was anything positive about these people, she jokingly said these people would think there was nothing wrong with their culture and the problem would lie in the one asking such a thing. Although she said Li'l Abner and the Clampett family were stereotypes, she referred to them often when describing the "real" hillbilly. And though sources will mention South Carolina as one of the largest concentrations of Scotch-Irish, she focused only on Kentucky and the Ozarks.

Of all the U.S. presidents of Scotch-Irish extraction, she only mentioned Andrew Jackson, by now a very unpopular president by politically correct standards. She called him the people's president, for during his time, he was very popular among the people, a large majority of who were Scotch-Irish.

I kept thinking back to what I know about my own people. Granted, I don't have a whole lot of details. I do know that my Great Grandpa William Moore owned a mercantile store in a town. He lived in that town in a beautiful white house. His lovely daughters received college educations. Certainly they lived a civilized life. And I do know that his wife, Mary Artiemissa, married late in her life, simply because she stayed at home to take care of her father and younger brothers after their mother died. I have trouble picturing her exposing her shoulders and thighs in the effort to "catch a man," as did Elly May, Daisy Mae, and Daisy Duke. She was more modest, like Mary Ellen Walton, and her daughter Nannie was more like Christy, the Appalachian school teacher. Nevertheless, I am curious now to discover details about their progenitors and just exactly how their families fit into historical context.

Ms. Studevant herself has Scotch-Irish ancestry. Regardless of how she portrayed these people in her lecture, she was talking about her own people. I took this into consideration as I asked her how, then, do we write the ugly truth about our ancestors without offending anyone in our families. Perhaps I was too offended myself to hear her reply, but I did get this much: They are merely a product of their ancestry--the barbaric Scots. When I write about my people, I like to celebrate the positive. I may find I have to mention a fact that is undesirable, but I try not to leave it at that. Explantions as to why something negative might have occurred are always helpful in my opinion.

I am not yet comfortable in assuming my Scotch-Irish ancestors were these undesirable folk portrayed in my class. I have not yet determined if Ms. Studevant is one of these historians who re-writes history. I like to find history written very close to the time it occurred or by one who lived it. She advised me, though, that history written nowadays has been more thoroughly researched and, therefore, is more trustworthy.

I need to do a lot more of my own research before I feel comfortable in believing anything I'm told about these tough, courageous, lovers of freedom and before I begin to write their story.