Which tartan for MacClive?

**Nathan** · 12th May 14, 04:07 PM

You could contact some of your cousins around Glasgow and ask them what tartan they wear...

http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcclive/

**MacCorquodale** · 12th May 14, 05:50 PM

Yeah, I found that site years ago and sent some emails but there hasn't been any answers or action on that site in many years.

Originally Posted by Nathan

You could contact some of your cousins around Glasgow and ask them what tartan they wear...

http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcclive/

**Nathan** · 12th May 14, 06:21 PM

The stuff on this website is probably the result of your enquiry but perhaps not. The "Mac" who runs this website also claims McClive is an official sept of Stewart of Appin. I'm not sure who he is though.

http://www.scottishtradingcompany.co...php?expand=434

**MacCorquodale** · 12th May 14, 06:35 PM

Yeah, that was the very first site in all the years of searching, mostly the internet, that I have found anything.

Just for some background; my dad died back in 1995 and died while homeless and pretty much a hopeless alcoholic and insane. Needless to say I didn't have much contact with him at the time. I didn't even meet him until I was around 7 and then really only saw him here and there over the next 12 years or so.

I lost touch with my grandmother McClive when I was 17 or so and lost contact with her due to my uncle and my mom hating each other and him keeping her from talking to me due to his worrying he would have to deal with my crazy mother and my father's problems at the time.

So, this is the reason I don't have much to go on.

The reason I'd like to honor that side is that as you, my understanding has always been that that is how it is done. Plus I did have lots of contact with my grandmother from a young age and by her account my Grandfather was a hell of a man and loved by all.

Originally Posted by Nathan

The stuff on this website is probably the result of your enquiry but perhaps not. The "Mac" who runs this website also claims McClive is an official sept of Stewart of Appin. I'm not sure who he is though.

http://www.scottishtradingcompany.co...php?expand=434

**Nathan** · 12th May 14, 07:18 PM

A lot of Irish references say MacClave is a variation of Mac Flaitheamh or Mac Laithimh (These are both pronounced MacClave. In the North of Ireland Mac Flaitheamh is rendered as MacClave and in the south it is rendered as Claffey or MacClaffey. Anotehr variation is MacLevy.

It is just as possible that MacClive is a variation of this name as it is that it is a variation of Dunnshleibhe (Dunlevy, MacLeave, Livingston, MacLeay).

http://www.ancestry.ca/name-origin?surname=mcclave

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.co...-11/0974169725

Based on phone books and Facebook searching, I think the biggest pocket of MacClives on earth is actually in Michigan. There are also some in West Africa which may provide a clue.

**MacCorquodale** · 12th May 14, 07:44 PM

I found many in Canada and a bunch of marriages in the 1980's in Inverness. There is a restaurant in upstate new York owned by a McClive as well. I visited the Battle of Lundy's Lane battlefield in Niagara Falls ( which is in a cemetery) and was shocked to see my name in large letters on a large family tombstone as we parked at the gates. So they were there as well.

I still very much doubt the Irish thing as it has not been mentioned once by my grandmother or father, uncle, etc.

I did have a bit of contact with my uncle back around the time my father died and he had also mentioned Fraserburgh. We hunted together for a few years , until we had a falling out, and he always mentioned the highlands but I never got much more than that, though he had done quite a bit of research and had a lot more knowledge of the family than I. He was a strange bird.

I don't see a reference to Ireland in any of the genealogy places either. Most seem to refer to around Glasgow.

I found the Ayrshire mention on a 1920 US census from Detroit.

**MacCorquodale** · 12th May 14, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by Nathan

A lot of Irish references say MacClave is a variation of Mac Flaitheamh or Mac Laithimh (These are both pronounced MacClave. In the North of Ireland Mac Flaitheamh is rendered as MacClave and in the south it is rendered as Claffey or MacClaffey. Anotehr variation is MacLevy.

It is just as possible that MacClive is a variation of this name as it is that it is a variation of Dunnshleibhe (Dunlevy, MacLeave, Livingston, MacLeay).

http://www.ancestry.ca/name-origin?surname=mcclave

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.co...-11/0974169725

Based on phone books and Facebook searching, I think the biggest pocket of MacClives on earth is actually in Michigan. There are also some in West Africa which may provide a clue.

Yeah, most of those are my relatives. My father had 8 or so brothers, all of whom lived to a ripe old age, some as old as 108 years old, and had lots of children. They all moved from the old Scottish neighborhood in Detroit around Warren and Greenfield avenue and moved to Brighton during the late 1940's.

Most fought in the war, including my grandfather.
He was an engineer and landed at Normandy.

Mt grandmother stayed in the old neighborhood until she was forced out due to old age and needing care. I last saw her when she was 78 or so. Luckily she got to meet my children and was tickled to death that I named my son after her husband. Unfortunately, she was a shell of her former feisty self. Damned old age...

**MacCorquodale** · 12th May 14, 08:08 PM

BTW, Nathan and all, I very much appreciate all of your help and don't want to be "that guy" that argues against suggestions and help given. I just very much doubt the Irish connection.

I really can't see my family having a problem with being Irish if that was the case, but they were so proud of being from the Scottish highlands it was mentioned often during the little time I got to be around them.

I wish I knew more but outside of My Grandfather's parents and his birthplace, I'm stumped.