Customer Reviews

The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee (Scots-Irish Chronicles)

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A tedious and self-serving paean to the Scotch-Irish of the American frontier. Billy Kennedy has a knack for recycling his own material and presents us nothing new, he simply trots out the usual vainglorious accounts of the American frontier and a few of the more famous people of Scotch-Irish descent who lived there.

My great grandmother always told us that we were "Part Scotch-Irish, part Indian, and a little bit French," so I bought this book hoping I would learn something about this aspect of my heritage, but I didn't. For the reader who wants to learn real history and not just a parade of famous names, a book like The Great Wagon Road gives a much more honest and balanced look at the Scotch-Irish and other settlers of the Appalachian frontier. The Great Wagon Road, firmly buttressed by facts, gives real insight into the conditions and challenges faced by our ancestors. For a more detailed look at a microcosm of the frontier, a work like Carolina Cradle traces in excruciating detail the settlers of the northwestern Carolina frontier. There are any number of good solid history books treating the Appalachian frontier in general and the Scotch-Irish in particular, so skip the works of Billy Kennedy.

I found this book to be very informative. It provides some information genealogically and describes the historical perspective of the region. I bought both the Carolinas and the Tennessee book and found that there was repetition. Therefore, I recommend buying one book on the Scotch-Irish written by Mr. Kennedy. I preferred the Carolinas book.

This book is attractive, but it has many flaws in content and in many ways is just plain sloppy -- poorly written and poorly edited. The author has no notes, so it is very difficult to tell his sources unless they are from very well known individuals (generals, religious leaders, etc.), and when one compares the original words of these people with what Kennedy quotes them as saying, one finds that Kennedy often misquotes them. Much other information is inaccurate as well, so this book cannot be trusted by genealogists or anyone else. The book is full of statements like "Davy Crockett was elected to represent Tennessee in the White House" (no, he was elected to Congress) that show that the author either wrote too quickly or did not have anyone review his work or worse. Too bad, because the subject matter has great appeal.

If you have ever wondered if your Tennessee ancestor was Scots-Irish, then this book will answer some of your questions. The book is an easy read and one I will be recommending to the relatives that want to know why ancestors left Scotland, went to Ireland and ended up in the colonies. Especially interesting for those wanting a nice-to-read book is the treatment of well known people like Daniel Boone, Sam Houston, TN Gov. Blount., and others. If you want a comprehensive treatment for further research, then this is probably not the book for you. I found Mr. Kennedy to be very entertaining while delivering excellent summaries of genealogical and historical information.

I bought this book because my ancestors were mostly Scots Irish and I wanted to lean more about them.

I loved the background information in Billy's book that tells about the character and beliefs of the Scots Irish and the Presbyterians.

I thought that more data about the common every day Scots Irish Immigrants to America shoud have been the main focas of the book.

It's interesing to know that many of the immigants became famous, but I'm not as intested in them as I am the ordinary people. After all, we can read about them in almost any American history book.

I stopped reading the book after the background information. It didn't go far enough into those details for me.