How far back is too far?

[Father Bill]

I've addressed this a couple of times before: You cannot "join" a clan. Either you're a member by birth or you're not. You can join a clan association. It's a club for people who are a member of a clan (by birth) or in some cases, who support that clan or who are interested in that clan.

Your clan does not charge dues, keep a membership list, or have application forms any more than your family does. It's a group of people who, one way or another are related to the clan and were so related the day they were born.

Your clan association is usually the opposite of all of those. It will probably charge dues, keep a membership list and have an application form. It may or may not be composed of people who were related to the clan from birth.

The clan chief (assuming that there is one) makes the official description of who is related by birth. S/he (yes, there is at least one female clan chief of whom I read recently) may also choose to include others who have different surnames including variant spellings and completely different names for reasons best known to the chief - usually because they come from the clan's lands. Some chiefs are more rigorous in their requirements than others.

Belonging to either or both groups can be fun. You might unfortunately also run into members of the clan or its association who have different views of 'who belongs' or even, in the case of the clan association, 'who should belong' than the official rules or designations describe. Such people are best avoided for your own peace of mind in order to maximize the fun part. They're analogous to the 'kilt kops' who seem to think they know better than anyone else and cannot be convinced by either fact or logic.

Hope all that helps a bit.

Bill+