Quote Originally Posted by OliviaScott View Post
Another reason I’m here is I have a rather odd wish to fulfill...
my boyfriend is a Marshall as that was his last name given, however during our discovery with his family tree he comes from a long line of bastard children who were then unofficially adopted into the Marshall clan.
He really wants to embrace his Heritage however since nothing was ever official with any of the clans his family lived with he feels it would be a lie

I want to do something special, and maybe it’s even silly, for Christmas- if you’re a member of the Marshall clan, or know someone who is I want to give him an adoption certificate for Christmas so that he feels official. So that he can wear the tartan that his name sale belongs to.
There was a recent thread (which McMurdo alluded to) where a couple of the members discussed contacting the Chief of a clan, not asking to be adopted into the clan, but instead, asking for permission to wear the tartan of the clan. Both were successful.

On the topic of adoption, when did this adoption take place? It's my understanding that official adoption first occurred in the U.S. around 1850, slowly became common in the U.S., and slowly spread to the rest of the world. For most of history, unofficial adoption was as official as it got.

There are other options for recognizing one's heritage. It sounds like your husband might know where in Scotland his ancestors come from (i.e. Aberdeen, Argyll, Galloway, Fife, etc). There are district tartans that anyone can wear. That's an option that might appeal to him.

I checked the tartan registry, and there's a Marshall fashion tartan. It's not associated with the clan. Fashion tartans are meant for everyone. However (and this is a big caveat), I can't find anyone selling it. That means it's probably not available except by ordering a custom run of the cloth. That's ... expensive. It occurred to me to look for non-clan kilts, because my nicest kilt is the Brown tartan, which is not a clan tartan. In the registry, Brown is listed as a "name" kilt. Therefore, it's regularly sought out and worn by people with the surname Brown (my mother's maiden name). (And just in case you were wondering, the Brown kilt is black, red, midnight blue, and forest green. It does not include the color brown.)

As a final thought, lots of us wear universal tartans or fashion tartans, which are unequivocally intended to be worn by anyone. These include some of the most common and popular tartans.