Scotland

Flag of Scotland

 

 

Royal Standard

My father's family, the Dodds, came to America from England, although the family roots are in Wales. There is also an Irish branch that came to America but in a different wave of immigration. My mother's family, the Mitchums, has its roots in England but Mitchums moved to Scotland in the fourteenth century and later into Ireland. American Mitchums belong to the Scots-Irish population that started coming to the New World as early as the seventeenth century.

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland shares a border with England to the south, and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Edinburgh, the country's capital and second-largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centers. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual, and industrial powerhouses of Europe.

The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. Having entered into a personal union with the kingdoms of England and Ireland following James VI, King of Scots, succeeding to the English and Irish thrones in 1603, the Kingdom of Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England in  1707 to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Great Britain itself subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Scotland's legal system has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in public and private law. The continued existence of legal, educational and religious institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 Union. In 1999, a devolved legislature, the Scottish Parliament, was reconvened with authority over many areas of home affairs following a referendum in 1997. In May 2011, the Scottish National Party won an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament. As a result, a referendum on independence will take place later this year.