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Curious McQuaid: Is McQuaid a Scotch-Irish name?
Yours Truly: As Bill Clinton might say: "Define Scotch-Irish."
CM: Well, ummm, a Scotch-Irishman was a person from Ireland who did not want to be called simply "Irish" because he . . . well . . . er . . .
YT: . . . was a bigot and did not want to be confused with the down-and-out potato famine Irish immigrants.
CM: No, no, no!
YT: Well, what is the definition of Scotch-Irish?
CM: OK, a Scotch-Irishman was a person of Scottish ancestry whose family had lived in Ireland for 100 to 200 years but had remained completely separate from the old Irish and retained the Scottish character and identity. If a person is born in a stable, does that make him a horse?
YT: Whew, CM, I'll have to tell you, that sounds an awful lot like bigotry to me, but I'll accept that definition for now. Now tell me . . . do these Irish-immigrant descendants who call themselves Scotch-Irish know with reasonable certainty that their ancestors were Scots from Scotland.
CM: Well, to be completely honest with you, they probably do not have any definite proof of that.
YT: Then, if they do know for certain that their ancestors came from Ireland, why bother to plant the "Scotch" in front of "Irish".
CM: You just don't get it, do you?
YT: Yes, I think I do . . . snobbery and bigotry have been around for a long, long time.
CM: Aieeeee!
YT: Well, if you insist, CM, I'll tell you my story. For many years, I thought that McQuaid/McQuate was a Scotch-Irish name. This assumption was based on the three following smidgens of knowledge:
My McQuate ancestors had been in America long before the Irish potato famine.
There have been no Roman Catholic McQuates among my traceable ancestors.
Lancaster County, PA, birthplace of my g-g-g-grandfather McQuate and most of his descendants, has long been identified as a magnet for early Scotch-Irish immigration.
When I actually started doing some serious research on my McQuate heritage, I could not make it come out to "Scotch-Irish".
Knowing that my ancestors had been established in Lancaster County since the 18th century, I first looked up the records of the Irish Presbyterian settlements in East Donegal, West Donegal, Rapho, Mount Joy, and Conoy Townships. No McQuaids were to be found in the 18th or 19th century records. The Scotch-Irish townships are located in Lancaster County's western bulge, which has never been McQuaid/McQuate territory. The McQuates have, since the early days, been inhabitants of the northeastern Townships - Warwick, Ephrata, the Cocalicos, the Earls, and the Leacocks.
Then, I started to consider the matter of religion. As far as I know, not a single one of my g-g-g grandfather Peter McQuate's descendants have
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