Scottish equivalent of "Smith"

[Twa_Corbies]

The clan system predates feudalism. As the power of the central government grew, such as it did, in the Middle Ages and later, the clans were slowly incorporated into feudalistic government, with the chief or chieftans becoming feudal barons and lords, and lesser clansmen becoming their tenants.



As noted, the clan system is no more, other than in a few vestigial rights and privileges that as often custom rather than law gives to the chiefs.

The end of the clans as viable political entities is usually reckoned to be 1746, with the failure of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. The revival of tartans and things Scottish started in the reign of George IV, several decades, not 200 years, later.

It's certainly true that not everyone had ancestors who were associated with a clan, but many of us wear tartans only from the clans from which we descend.

It should also be pointed out that there is very little evidence for clans wearing any particular tartan to identify their clan affiliation before the 1800's. The notion of certain names being attached to certain tartans came about as a marketing gimmick on the part of tartan manufacturers like Wilsons of Bannockburn back in the early 19th century. In the 1700's and earlier tartans were worn, but probably had no specific identity in regard to clan or family association. The various Highland regiments named after their commanders - The Gordon Highlanders, the Atholl Highlander's, MacLeod's Highlanders, the Seaforth's, the Sutherland Highlanders, etc. were probably the origin of the notion of certain names being associated with certain tartans, since the different Highland regiments often worn tartans based on the Blackwatch, with the addition of colored overstripes in the tartans - the Gordon Highlanders added a yellow stripe to the Blackwatch, the MacLeods added buff and red stripes, the Seaforths added white and red stripes, etc. These then became associated with the clans Gordon, MacLeod, MacKenzie, etc.

If you look at very early portraits of kilted Scottish chiefs, you will notice that the tartans often changed from generation to generation, and the Campbells used to wear red tartans - very unlike the lighter colored Blackwatch tartan now known as Campbell (lots of Campebells served in the Blackwatch, and this may be the reason that they adopted that tartan as their own.

[O'Callaghan]

<snip>

The Highland Clan system that everyone romances about was effectively dead a couple of hundred years before the Kilt as we know it, and named Tartans, were invented. So it's a moot point really.

In the days when the Clan system was active Named Tartans did not exist. If you wanted to show membership in a Clan you wore the Plant Badge of the Clan.

If your genealogical research can trace your family back to a specific region of the Scottish Highlands then perhaps you can feel some connection to the Clan from that region. But to think that that Clan must be found and that only that Clan is the right one I'm afraid is just not correct.

<snip>

I think the consensus is in fact that there's a couple of hundred years overlap between the Scottish clan system and kilts. Tartan in fact goes back thousands of years, so tartan certainly existed, but mostly with no significance to the pattern or 'sett'.

However, it's true that Scottish clans were primarily identified by their plant badge (sprig of vegetation worn in the hat) in their heyday. Nevertheless, maybe a dozen clans did actually have a clan tartan at that time, and maybe half of those wore the same one they do today, but in general most clan tartans are later inventions, some of them involving fraud, some chosen by the woollen mills, and most merely an afterthought long after the ordinary members of the clan were dispossesed from the clan land.

As to tracing your family name back to a particular region of Scotland, I would say that was necessary but not sufficient, unless you merely want to prove that you are entitled to wear the district tartan of that region. You would also have to find your name on a 'sept' list of families that belong to the clan but have a different surname.

Many lowland Scots names are English names, because, frankly, there is no ethnic difference between the lowlanders and the English (ducks to avoid flames!). Borders don't always fall in the place where ethnicity changes. The highlanders, OTOH, are ethnically very different. That's talking in generalities, of course, not about individuals or specific families, and ignoring that most people have a mixed heritage even in the 'old world'.

You will find, however, that many English names are septs of Scottish clans, often of more than one. Hypothetically, for any such name, you may find that some people of that name are a sept of clan A, some are a sept of clan B and the vast majority are a sept of no clan whatsoever, often lacking even the tiniest iota of Scottish ancestry, or even if they do, never having lived in the right region to have been in the right clan.

I have several such names in my own family tree, but have never traced any of them back to Scotland, much less to a region where one of the clans is found on whose sept list they appear. I therefore have to assume that none of my ancestors were a member of a sept of any Scottish clan, and probably were never Scottish atall, even though I can trace myself back to at least half a dozen surnames that appear on sept lists. You would probably find a similar scenario for anyone whose heritage is mostly English, as mine is.

I wear the kilt because I like it, but I take my Irish ancestry quite seriously. I don't want to step on anyone's toes by appropriating their tartan, so I wear Irish National or County Cork tartan, or my plain black kilt. I have ordered a plain green kilt, as would have been worn in Ireland a century ago, and I might get an Irish saffron kilt eventually.

I could also, at rather higher cost, for example, wear the St. George's tartan (to represent England), or the Maryland state tartan, or the Callaghan tartan (yes, Ireland had clans, they may not have had a tartan in ancient times, or in my case more than two years ago, and many still don't, but most Scottish clans didn't wear their current tartan or any specific tartan before the '45 anyway).

If I had ever served in any military unit, their tartan would be fair game too. AFAIK, there are tartans for the US Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, as well as for the RAF and the Royal Navy, and of course for the highland regiments.

There are lots of choices, even if you scrupulously avoid any tartan that represents something you don't belong to. The USMC tartan seems a fine choice for the OP.

[timseh]

Thanks all for the advice. I had some understanding of how the clan system worked, but I guess it didn't really dawn on me until it was explained here. Thank you!

It is going to take some digging if I'm going to come up with anything. I've made some progress with my paternal grandmother's family. Talk about confusion with naming. They're from Norway. It's enough to make my head explode. I have managed to get that back to the mid 16th century. My maternal grandparents both have roots in Germany and I've been able to trace that line just as far back.

Unfortunately, my paternal grandfather has passed, and there's pretty much no-one left in the family who has any information.

We can't locate what documentation gramps had, but we do know that he had a genealogy going linking us to Edward Doten, who arrived on the Mayflower. That puts both sides of my family here since the late 16th/early 17th century.

I have had the thought of just sticking with the Marine Corps Tartan and moving on. That might just be the best thing to do at this point (I'm not giving up, though).

Just out of curiosity, I've seen a plethora of Harbisons listed in County Stirling. From what little I've read of it so far, this seems to have been a critical piece of territory. As it seems the clans were more or less territorial in nature, I'd assume one was predominant there. I'm going to do some more research, but until I've either settled or exhausted trying to flesh out the tree a bit, does anyone happen to know what Clan or Clans that was?

[billmcc]

I have had the thought of just sticking with the Marine Corps Tartan and moving on. That might just be the best thing to do at this point (I'm not giving up, though).

The leatherneck tartan is nice. Wear it proudly. There are other American tartans, like the American Heritage tartan (see here: http://www.usakilts.com/store/registered_tartans.php) that may have some appeal to you.

[macwilkin]

There is also a very handsome Stirling & Bannockburn District tartan:

http://www.district-tartans.com/stirling.htm

In regards to Phil's comparison of the clans to the mafia, whilst it certainly makes sense, I think an alternative comparison can be made with the various Native American tribes and clans of North America. Colin Calloway discusses the similarities between the Highlanders and Indians in his book White People, Indians and Highlanders: Tribal People and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America (Oxford University Press) which is worth perusing.

And, to add to Daz's comparisons to sports teams, Lowlanders would have viewed Highlanders and their culture much like the Scots-Irish frontiersmen viewed their Native American neighbours.

Regards,

Todd

[timseh]

I see already that my question was just plain stupid... It seems that Stirling / Bannockburn is the answer.

I've also managed to locate, much to my surprise, a history of the Harbison/Doty family in America, now thankfully available in all it's photocopied glory from Google Book Search as a PDF file, which definitively links me to Edward Doty of Mayflower fame. According to a brief perusal of the 1000 page tome, Edward was said to be "A youth from London", though this is almost certainly false as his papers have been proven to be a forgery. Suspicion seems to be that he was Scottish or Irish, neither one of which seems to have been popular in London around that time (1620).

I'm getting there.

[RedBeard]

Poke around on http://www.tartansauthority.com/Web/...rchintroc2.asp

[timseh]

This has certainly been enlightening. I'm finding something new at every turn.

At this stage, I'm thinking more and more that the best way to move forward is simply to embrace my heritage and simply adopt the Tartan that best identifies me. That would undoubtedly have to be the Leatherneck. Though I only served one tour of duty, I'm a Marine until the day I die. Seems fitting. Still, I'm planning within the next few years to visit Scotland and County Stirling is at the top of my list. I've found so far, that every Harbison I've ever encountered can trace their lineage back to an ancestor we have in common, at least in this country. I wouldn't be surprised to find that many if not most I might encounter there are (very) distant cousins.

[gilmore]

This has certainly been enlightening. I'm finding something new at every turn.

At this stage, I'm thinking more and more that the best way to move forward is simply to embrace my heritage and simply adopt the Tartan that best identifies me. That would undoubtedly have to be the Leatherneck. Though I only served one tour of duty, I'm a Marine until the day I die. Seems fitting. Still, I'm planning within the next few years to visit Scotland and County Stirling is at the top of my list. I've found so far, that every Harbison I've ever encountered can trace their lineage back to an ancestor we have in common, at least in this country. I wouldn't be surprised to find that many if not most I might encounter there are (very) distant cousins.

The Harbison Y DNA Project http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....NA_Project.htm has identified six groups of Harbisons. It seems that it's likely that that number can be reduced to four genetic groups of them who are related to each other, if I read the pages correctly.

Two of these groups have been traced via the paper trail to Ulster, and one of those is assumed to have come there from Refewshire in Scotland. Perhaps two are traceable to England.

"...However, there is no one Harbison family, at least that we know of, thus no right or wrong answer when comparing ancestries. Harbisons in America have come from Wales, England, Ireland, Australia, and even Germany, and, over time, the surname has also been spelled or recorded as Harbinson, Harbeson, Hardison, Harvison, Harveson, Harberson and about 40 other variations. We welcome participation by all variations."

[Rowland]

Least we not forget there are also the heritage tartans as well. Point of fact there are lots of Scottish heritage tartans. To add to that list you mention German heritage, there is a heritage tartan for that as well.....and it is so lovely to boot.

Keep in mind that no matter who you are in this world you can trace your linage back to someone from somewhere.

i.e. My mothers maiden name is Landers which is a sept of the Lamont clan. I have our family tree written back to about the 15th cent. Can you imagine how many names are in that tree? Just from my mothers line i can see members who either are or were septs of 10 different clans. You throw in my father (sir name Bryant) which is of Irish decent and i could easily find another handful of clans and district tartans that would fit.

End of the day you find a tartan that suit you and go with it. Outside of the fine people on this forum, who really knows the meaning of it all anyway