"Modern Clans" Sorry I don't get it?

[Pyper]

My G-Grandmother used to ask the guys, when they got to reminiscing, "Well if Scotland was so great, why did we leave?"

I'm a member of the Clan Macpherson Association (one of the largest in the USA). It's really just a social organization. We get together at the games, talk about things, share some food, and go home.

[MacBean]

I'd be interested in hearing which "small town outside of Inverness". Some of us hail from the same locale.

Night before last I was watching a documentary on building the Titanic. Some hearty souls in Belfast were remaking the prow section as a memorial, and making it the old way. They bent the steel ribs. They cut the steel plates. And the hammered in the red hot steel rivets. They even had a hat man (supervisor with bowler hat) who docked their pay for every mistake, or slacking. I think four men died building the Titanic. Their pay was miserable.

Imagine someone heating the rivets at the forge, and then throwing them, red hot, at you. They were hammered in by two men while a third man dampened the blows from the other side. As they cooled they tightened. If the work was substandard, the ship would leak. In the case of the Titanic, it seems something wasn't right with the riveting.

There's a very cool interactive web site on Building the Titanic here. The show was on National Geographic Channel. I'd never seen anything that drove home what it might have been like to work in the shipyards.

There are good videos at the above site worth viewing. Here is one for example: http://channel.nationalgeographic.co...ideos/10322_00

[EagleJCS]

If the modern clans were like the old system in the days of antiquity, I'd have been "puttin' the touch" on Buccleuch (as Chief of Clan Scott) for a bit of assistance long before now. As it stands these days, though, I'm on my own.

Some clan society members with close personal relationships - either through actual kinship or just good friendship - might help each other out when possible, but the reality is that the modern clan societies are more social/heritage/genealogy groups than actual 'family'.

[Singlemalt]

Gentlemen, thank you for your thoughtful and considered replys. This forum never fails to impress me with the well informed and insightful responses to questions.

Actually like my new friend from Clan Kieth I am also a "student of history" in the sense that I have a history degree from one of Canada' top university. I did not pursue a career in it as I slipped into sales where I found the money better but I have always read history with interest and passion. I certainly understand that the historic Clan system was long dead well before by grandfather was born. In fact it was in big trouble well before the Jacobite risings, which crushed it. I only used my Scottish born Grandfather as a more personal example of how the system failed the Scottish people, particularly those with little choice but to emigrate, which I think would include most of the ancestors of us living in the world outside Scotland.

Perhaps I am too literal, or cynical as the MacInnes gentleman suggests. However my early studies in history and my family background repelled against what, I thought I was seeing, on this forum as some sort of promotion of a long continuous system of clan, loyalty, affiliation and leadership.

Your responses indicate that you all recognize that in reality most of the "modern clans" are a reinvention mostly from us here in the New World. As long as we all recognize what they are and what we are doing I have no problem with the concept. We all need a flag to rally around and friendship and comradeship are nothing to be trifle about. If the modern sense of clan membership brings a little joy into your life I would not in any way want to diminish it. More power to you and your friends. I am afraid I am personally just a little to literal to buy into it. Perhaps that is my problem.

What I am seeing from your responses is an intelligent recognition that you are re-inventing new social groups which have considerable value to the current membership. As such I have no problem with what you are promoting. I think I will just chose not to participate.

To the member who asked exactly where my Grandfather's family was from. It was Clachnaharry which is now part of the city of Inverness but was then a small fishing village west of the city on the Beauly Firth. I have never been there but would like to see it someday.

And finally to the member who suggested "memoirs" be treated with great care and respect I heartily agree. My grandfather's start on his life story came down to me handwritten with a fountain pen on lined foolscap. I have since transported it into a Word document and scanned the original it into Adobe and sent it to my many, brothers, cousins, nephews and nieces so that the profound story it tells will never be lost on his descendents

[Jack Daw]

The Clan MacIntyre Association is merely a club of people with similar interests (history, genealogy) in our common clan. It does not represent the clan in any manner. As a matter of fact, the clan chief is not involved in our American association although he lives in the U.S.

[English Bloke]

... My grandfather's [memoirs] start on his life story came down to me handwritten with a fountain pen on lined foolscap. I have since transported it into a Word document and scanned the original it into Adobe ...

My goodness! I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that. I'll bet it's a tremendous read. Not wishing to intrude on such a personal thing but have you ever thought of getting it published? That would be a fine and fitting tribute to a man you clearly care deeply about and a great historical insight for those who have an interest in the Scottish diaspora.

[SouthernCelt]

There have been many stories/books/movies about the Highland Clans and their customs. That was then, this is now. Despite being distantly related to my Chief, he owes me nothing as the "Clan System" today is just an association of distantly related people of the same name. It has been my observance that the larger "Modern Clans" are typically those that had lots of children and force them to come to The Games as a sort of family reunion. The smaller clans probably have distant relatives of the same name that have been in the U.S. so long that they have lost their Scottish identity and customs or don't know where those customs came from.

[BuchananBiker]

If in trouble, I have blood family to draw upon. I don't expect anyone else, regardless of the tartan they wear, to sacrifice for me. I'm also not expecting anyone in a different tartan to come steal my car and burn my house. The Old Clan system is gone.

That said, I do take pride in my ancestry. I felt a warming in my otherwise hostile personality at the games every single time another person in my clan tartan walked up and said "hi cousin". It happened alot. It caught my wife completely off guard. At the end of the day, for the first time in her life, she felt part of something bigger.

Yes, modern Clan is social. It's not a military or economic bond. It's like a family reunion where you meet your second cousin and feel kinship with a total stranger.
Yes, it's a bit romanticized. Yes it's irrational. But in this world, sometimes you need to be a romantic fool.

[Dale Seago]

Yes, modern Clan is social. It's not a military or economic bond. It's like a family reunion where you meet your second cousin and feel kinship with a total stranger.
Yes, it's a bit romanticized. Yes it's irrational. But in this world, sometimes you need to be a romantic fool.

From your keyboard to God's monitor screen!

[SouthernCelt]

Pyper,

For a lot of us Scottish-Americans it was not our choice to leave. Our ancestors were forcibly transported to the new world and we never went back.
I've been to Scotland, had a great time and I'm willing to go back, unfortunately making a living takes priority.