My Irish ancestral connection is my third great-grandmother, Elizabeth McKlveen. Family lore says she was born in Ireland in 1792, to Scottish-born Presbyterian parents Henry and Isabella McKlveen.

So should I say Elizabeth was Scots-Irish or Scotch-Irish? Faced with this thorny question in my early blog-writing days, I remember reading "Scotch is the drink; Scots are the people" and "Scotch comes from a bottle; Scots don't." Consequently I was persuaded to use the term Scots-Irish.  However, I've noticed many knowledgeable genealogical associates say Scotch-Irish. It's time to take a fresh look at nomenclature.

Michael Miller wrote an essay entitled "Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish: What's In a Name?" which was originally published in Tennessee Ancestors, vol. 20, 143-50 (2004). It can now be read on the Ulster-Scots Language website at http://www.ulsterscotslanguage.com/en/texts/scotch-irish/scotch-irish-or-scots-irish/. Miller's scholarly analysis notes the wide usage of Scotch-Irish in the United States over the past 300 years. He also references the Library of Congress catalog, which at the time of his essay included 64 holdings with Scotch-Irish in the title but only 4 with Scots-Irish. He argues that Scotch should not be reserved for the drink just because some find the word offensive. If that were true, he says, we should also refer to butterscots candy and Scots tape! After extensive consideration in his essay, Miller concluded Scotch-Irish should continue to be considered the proper terminology.

found the Merriam-Webster online dictionary shows a cross-reference between the two terms as though they were interchangeable; however, it does note the first-known use of Scotch-Irish was in 1744 while the first-known use of Scots-Irish was 1972. Maybe I should take the easy way out and just refer to Elizabeth McKlveen as an Ulster-Scot?