Tartan Etiquette

[Antipodean Celt]

In recent decades population mobility has increased dramatically. There are comparatively few these days living in the precise area their ancestors have lived for generation upon generation. There is even a programme on television here in the UK devoted to people discovering from where their families have come. To portray this scenario as the Scotland /the UK v the rest is a serious distortion.

Hi kilted scholar.

You make an excellent point. The danger is over generalisation and it is easy to do.

I think I was saying that the desire to understand one's origins appears to be common to most people (of all cultures), but varies in intensity depending upon a range of factors. One of the strongest is adoption for perhaps obvious reasons. Another is emigration. Yet another is the age of the individual. This stuff bored me silly as a young man when my grandparents tried to tell ne about it. Now that I am middle-aged and a grandfather myself, I am bordering on the obsessive about it. My children of course sigh resignedly as I launch into yet another family story, but perhaps they too will catch the bug as they get older. Such is life.

I certainly wasn't saying that people who still live in the country of their ancestors don't have the desire to trace their family trees. Clearly a huge number do. I was merely observing that the colonial descendants of Scottish and Irish émigrés (on XMTS at least) seem to have a stronger need to 'reconnect' with their ancestry and to PROVE that connection. That leads to the kind of very interesting posts in this thread describing where our ancestors come from and to the phenomenon of the lengthy explanations of origins given by tourists of the old country to friendly locals that Jock Scot originally posted about.

I was certainly not trying to suggest any colonials vs UK theme and I apologise if that impression was given. On the contrary, I think we all have this need to know where we come from to a greater or lesser extent. I just think that the children of émigrés have, IN GENERAL, a greater level of enthusiasm about the topic and the ability to bore the kilts off locals whilst going on and on about it, faded photographs and all (I have some too). Jock Scot's original observation (which is a credit to his patience and tolerance with enthusiastic tourists) is almost a cliche, and it is a cliche because it is so common. I recognise the cliche in myself, as do many other posters. I simply find it interesting that whether we are American, Canadian, Australian, South African, English or whatever, the ideas of reconnecting with our gaelic ancestry, and honouring tradition by wearing the kilt, are incredibly similar.

I think the level of interest in this thread is an illustration of the resonance the issue has for so many of us.