Are they Scottish?

The last post was short, so I decided to give ye another shortie. I got a book from the library a couple weeks ago called The Scottish 100 by Duncan A. Bruce. It has short biographies on 100 famous Scots. Going through it, I found that there were a lot of people I knew from history but didn't know they were Scottish. Some of these may surprise you as well, so here is a list of some people you may not have known were Scottish.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) A famous writer. Author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and many other very good books.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Inventor of the telephone.

Thomas A. Edison (1874-1931) Inventor of the lightbulb. (The real light bulb, mind, not those florescent ones they have today that don't give off any light!)

James Cook (Captain Cook) (1728-1779) Famous explorer.

David Livingstone (1813-1873) Missionary, famous for his exploration of Africa.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) Famous poet.

George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron) (1788-1824) Famous Poet.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Writer and poet.

John Paul Jones (1747-1792) Famous naval commander of the American navy in the American revolution. (Ever heard the quote, "I have not yet begun to fight!"?)

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) Hero of World War II.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1866) Commander of the Union army in the American Civil War.

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) Famous patriot supporter in the American Revolution. ("Give me liberty or give me death!")

Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) Another famous patriot supporter of the American Revolution.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Author of Sherlock Holmes.

So as you can see a lot of people were Scottish and we probably never knew it. This is just to name a few. Tomorrow, I will be posting a list of books to help your research into Scottish history, so make sure you come and check that out!

Slainte, Hazel