Hello from Durango, CO

[UrsulaHussy]

Yes, I know freep. ;)

All my life I've had a fascination for all things Scottish. When freep told me about the recent Aztec Highland Games/Celtic Festival, I was thrilled at the opportunity to be able to go immerse myself in all things Scottish.

Between a most enjoyable day at the Heilan' games, and freep's talk of his ancestry research, I caved and got myself onto ancestry.com.

Now, you see, I grew up knowing I was adopted, and when I was about 30 (after my adopted parents had both passed on), I got serious about locating my birth parents, and was lucky enough to do so. From them, I found out that my mother's side was half German, half English; father's side half Swedish, half Lithuanian. I wasn't expecting to find many Clan connections in my ancestry, but thought it would be something fun to explore. Had enough names and birth dates to get the ball rolling.

Lo and behold, did I not find direct lines to some 70 different clans (so far), the closest being a 5th great-grandmother who was a Burnett, and whose grandfather came over from Scotland in the early 1700s. All my connections come from my mother's mother's side (the English 1/4). Many of the lines go back to the Scandinavians and the Saxons.

So far, the Clans in which I have 10 or more generations of unbroken male line are: Burnett, Bruce, Murray, MacDougall, Sinclair, Stewart, Carnegie, Campbell, Crichton, and Melville. I'm still on the fence as to which kilt(s) I may end up with. I've got the AncestryDNA test pending, and I'm looking forward to chatting with the XMTS group, as well as to going to Scots on the Rocks in Moab in a couple of weeks!

Anyway, nice to be here amongst the rest o' ye redshanks, and thanks to freep for pointing me in this direction!