Scotch-Irish Americans are American descendants of Ulster Scots people who emigrated from Ulster to America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ancestors had originally migrated to Ulster mainly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England in the 17th century. In the 2017 American Community Survey, 5.39 million reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 3 million identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry, and many people who claim "American ancestry" may actually be of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
An example, showing the usage of Scotch as an adjective, in the 4th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, Edinburgh, Scotland (1800), and modernized to Scottish in the 7th edition (1829).
Scotch-Irish-American boy in Hawaii, 1909
The Ulster Scots, also called Ulster Scots people or, in North America, Scotch-Irish (Scotch-Airisch) or Scots-Irish, are an ethnic group in Ireland who share a common history, culture, and ancestry. Some speak an Ulster Scots dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language. As an ethnicity, they descend largely from Scottish and English settlers who moved to the north of Ireland, during the 17th century.
Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, was the first of Scots-Irish extraction.
