The 1718 Migration – Events and Celebrations
“This year marks the three hundredth anniversary of the migration of a number of families from the Bann Valley to a new life in North America.”
“In order to commemorate this, Ulster University shall host a gathering of academic and community writers who shall explore the connections between Ulster and North America. The event will examine three main shared areas of interest between the two places: culture, family and space. It is hoped that this will prompt a re-examination of the impact of literature and ideas, family and genealogy and space and landscape that have shaped the relationship between the two places then and since. This conference is a sister conference of the Maine Ulster Scots Project Ulster Diaspora Reunion and Conference which will be held August 14-16, 2018, in Brunswick Maine at Bowdoin College Campus. Afterlives of 1718”
What’s so fascinating to me, is that the historians and scholars in Northern Ireland have such an intense interest it the Scots-Irish both there and in America. In contrast, for many American descendants of the Scots-Irish and American historians, their influence on America is in the very hazy past. Robert Dinsmoor, The Rustic Bard, is better known in Northern Ireland than in America. The contributions of the Scots-Irish to the Revolution in American are better known there than here, where the colonist are portrayed as a monolithic group, which they were not.
MAINE ULSTER SCOTS
Schedule of Events
Tuesday, Augus 14, 2018
8:30 AM- 4:30 PM Full day Guided Bus Tour of Historic Portland for Pre-registered guests.
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Conference Registration Bowdoin, Thorne Dining Hall
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM Cocktail Hour & Dinner with Special Keynote event for speakers and 5 day ticket holders only. Sponsored By Northern Ireland Bureau
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Conference Registration Thorne Dining Hall
9:00 AM-10:00 AM Welcome & Opening Roundtable “Immigration – Emigration Ulster to Maine Causes, Consequence, Conditions” Kresge Auditorium, Bowdoin College
10:00 AM -11:00 AM
Concurrent Presentations 1-3
1. Maine Before 1718 – Dr. Emerson “Tad” Baker, Salem State University
2.TBD
3. 1718 Families Project – Mr. Colin Brooks
11:00 AM – 12:00 AM
Concurrent Presentation 4-6
4. Rustic Bard Poet- Robert Dinsmoor – Dr. Frank Ferguson, Ulster University
5.Title To Be Announced -Mr. Chris Sockalexis, Penobscot Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
6. Allagash Community Under Siege- Mr. Darrell McBriety
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM Free buffet lunch for 5-day ticket holders- Moulton Hall, Bowdoin College
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Roundtable 2 “Exploring the Diaspora” -Kresge Hall
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Concurrent Presentations 7-9
7. “Hardscrabble and good old times amongst the Scotch Irish in Maine” – Mr. Alister McReynolds
8. “By Another Route: The Ulster Scots and the Scottish Prisoners of 1650-51” – Dr. Carol Gardner
9. From Kilrea to Kittery and beyond, the Sterret(t) Saga- Mr. Bob Starrat
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Concurrent Presentations 10-12
10. Scots-Irish Religious Folkways in Mid-Coast Maine; The Presbyterian Founding 1729-1763– Mr. Carl R. “Chip” Griffin III, Esq.
11. Relationships with the land: The Scots-Irish Experience in the District of Maine – Mr. John T. Mann, President Emeritus, Maine Ulster Scots Project
12. Wilson Family in Maine- Ms. Delia Wilson Lunsford
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Private Meet & Greet for presenters and 5-day ticket holders only, Hosted by the Scottish Affairs Council, special guest Joni Smith, at The Daniel, Brunswick Maine. Cash bar, casual setting.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
7:00 AM-8:00 AM Walk in Conference Registration Location TBD
8:00 AM -10:00 AM Round Table 3 “Religious History” with 1718 Woodside sermon offered by Rev. James McCaughan of Dunboe Church, Articlave, Northern Ireland and Brunswick, First Parish Church Reverend Mary Bard.
Round Table Panel with experts on clergy and migration. – First Parish Church, Brunswick.
10:00 AM- 11:00 AM
Concurrent Presentations 13-15
13. Woodside in Dunboe Parish Northern Ireland- Dr. Alison McCaughan
14. 1718 Migration; Connections Coincidences, Consequences- Dr. Linde Lunney, Royal Irish Academy
15. NEHGS DNA Studies- Mr. Tom Dreyer, New England Historic Genealogical Society
11:00 AM – 12:00 AM
Concurrent Presentations 16-18
16. Role of Religion in Migration – Dr. William Roulston, Ulster Historical Society
17. TBD
18. Gaelic Poetry Expert Title TBD- Ms. Holly Morrison
12: 00 PM Free buffet lunch for 5-day ticket holders- Moulton Hall, Bowdoin College
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Roundtable “Somerset Archaeology” -Kresge Hall
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Concurrent Presentations 19 – 21
19. Rathlin Island to Lubec, The Sam Henry Collection- Ms. Sarah Carson, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Museum Service Officer
20. Woodside Homestead Archaeology – Mr. Fred Koerber
21. TBD
Concurrent Presentations 22-24
19. Forest & Coasts, The Ballads of Maine, -Ms. Julia Lane, Castlebay
20. Fort Richmond Archaeology- Dr. Leith Smith, Maine Historic Preservation
21. The Irish New Settlement on Merrymeeting Bay- Ms. Barbara Desmarais, Brunswick Historian
6:30 PM- 9:30 PM Evening Special Event: “Fiddle Traditions in Ulster-Scots Music, Then & Now” Open to the Public Tickets available to all. Free to 5-day ticket holders.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Open to all pre-registered ticket holders on first come, pre-paid basis.
8:30 AM – 12:00 PM Historic Tour 3 “MEETING HOUSES and PARTING PLACES; FINDING the “COMMON GROUND”
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Historic Tour 4 “Archaeology: MacFadden Site & Merrymeeting Bay”
6:00 PM Special pre-games Ceildh sponsored by St. Andrews Society of Maine– Topsham Fairgrounds – Free and open to the public!
Saturday, August 18, 2018
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM 40th Annual Maine Highland Games and Scots Festival, hosted by St. Andrews Society of Maine
Open to the public, Free to 5-day ticket holders. Tickets may be pre-purchased or purchased at the gate. Click here for more info.
So for all of you with family names such as the Boyd, McGregor, Cornwell, Holmes, Nesmith, Davidson, Cochran, Dinsmore, Moore, Armstrong, Hopkins, Ramsay, Thompson, Jameson, Paterson, Mitchell, Wilson, McBride, Gray, Anderson, Greg, McGovern, Hordock, Campbell, McLaughlin, MacFadden, Galt, Todd, King, Black, Tarbell, McAlester, Robb, Lindsay, Barr, Black, Christy, Craig, Smith, Irwin, Bryce, Dunlop, Knox, Kincaid, Hendry, Duncan, Gilmore, McKeen, Stirling, Caldwell, Smiley, Morrison, Hogg, Hanson, Hazleton, Hunter, Richey, Walker, McNeal, Orr, Lord, Alexander, Clendenin, Clark, Barnet, Allison, Steele, Starrett, Stuart and many others; you might just have Scots-Irish roots. Many of these names were on the 1718 petition emigrate to Governor Shute or part of the migration.
Windham NH History 