Information on Kilts

[boonystomper]

I am looking for information on what Kilt I would want to wear reflecting my Family Heritage, If anyone knows of ways to find this information out please reply back to me, Thank you

Josh

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Josh, generally speaking -- and certainly this is the case in Scotland-- one wears the tartan associated with his father's family. If your Scottish "link" is through your Mother, then you would wear her tartan. For example:

If your father's name is McArthur, you'd generally wear the MacArthur tartan. But if your father's name was DeGrazzio and your Mother was a McBain, then you would wear the McBain tartan.

If you are several (or more) generations removed from your Scottish ancestor, then it would be appropriate to wear the tartan associated with your most recent Scottish ancestor--- if great, great, grand papy was a McKinnon, that should probably be your tartan of preference.

If in doubt, ask Matt Newsome a fearless, and well respected contributor to this forum and he'll set you straight.

Best of luck!

Scott

[Kilted-Marine]

You first need to find your clan affiliation. Best way to start is type in a search engine..like google " clan sept (and your last name)" IE clan sept keith or clan sept smith etc.. that should give you a good start to find what clan you belong too.

You could also look at http://www.scotclans.com/whats_my_clan/
you can type in your name and it will hopefully provide and answer

You can try you last name or in some cases try a name from the maternal side of the family.

Once you find a clan.. check the official clan site and see if they recognize that as being a SEPT (sub-family) of the clan

[MacMillans son]

Welcome to Xmarks Josh.

The only thing I might add to what Scott has offered is to be aware that not all Scottish names have stereotypical prefaces of "Mac" "Mc" etc. And, that many families are septs of clans whose name is not audibly related to that family name.

For instance, the last name of "Bell" is a sept of Clan MacMillan. One may not automatically assume that "Bell" is a Scottish name, nor that it was a sept of a clan whose name is so dissimilar.

I hope that helps, and again, Welcome Aboard!.

Brooke

[kiltman08]

Hi my grandmother was a Brown can anyone tell me the available tartans please?
cheers

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Hi my grandmother was a Brown can anyone tell me the available tartans please?
cheers

MacMillan or Lamont.

[MacBean]

So Scott, this interests me. If Brown is a sept of MacMillan or Lamont, how does a Brown in the present, and some distance from his ancestry, know if their family is Scottish at all? Couldn't Brown be, say, English, too? Oddly, Lamont is a common name in my family, but no one has any record of why. Similarly, the other day I met a Bean who said his family was Polish! That made me think a bit! Are Lanes in English descendents of Scottish MacLeans perhaps? Do we make many mistakes hanging too much on a name? I noticed in times long past, the Highland surnames were more often first names (if that had any meaning at all)...hence the common debate about whether King MacBeth was any relative of the MacBeans. Too many questions, mostly unanswerable, but I'd be interested in what you had to say.

[xman]

These are from House of Edgar, but the colours should not be taken literally since they are merely digital reproductions and the actual colours may vary wildly when seen in person. Pick the one(s) you like and get samples to view before buying.

Personally I like the MacMillan Hunting and Lamont Muted best.

Here's a picture of young Hamish graduating this year in his uncle's Lamont Muted. Smashing!

There might be more tartans which surface.

Hope that helps,

X

[M. A. C. Newsome]

There is also the Brown family tartan.

[ForresterModern]

Your comments are quite on point regarding the true original "nationality" of you given name. Many of similar name could orignate from numerous sites across the world, mostly Europe but not all.

We Forresters/Forsters/Fosters have separate but overlapping histories from Scotland, England, Ireland (probably Scottish diaspora), Flanders and France (Forestiere's) that I know of. Which branch of the "family" you herald from is only known to you through chasing back your own ancestry as far as you can, often hundreds or potentially a thousand years to see just what you can find.

Or you can take the short route and find your nearest scottish relative, preferably on your paternal side if available, and do a simple sept search to see what major clan that family was likely allied to as described above.

Being a Forrester, and knowing there is a southern Scottish and northern English background to my most recent related family origins, it is a reasonable assumption that we were a sept of the Douglas clan of the same region, both famous Border families and rievers, although I cannot prove it (yet) with more definitive lineage charts. However, some of the more northern and western Scottish Forresters were septs of the MacDonald clans, so who is to say that I am not from that branch, unless I do the ancestry lineage homework to tell for sure. Does that mean that I cannot wear either the Douglas or MacDonalds tartans? I think that depends on how particular you desire to be with documenting your ancestral "right" to wear a specific tartan. I wear them both, with pride and respect, and will continue to do so untiol I find out differently by further ancestral snooping.

jeff

So Scott, this interests me. If Brown is a sept of MacMillan or Lamont, how does a Brown in the present, and some distance from his ancestry, know if their family is Scottish at all? Couldn't Brown be, say, English, too? Oddly, Lamont is a common name in my family, but no one has any record of why. Similarly, the other day I met a Bean who said his family was Polish! That made me think a bit! Are Lanes in English descendents of Scottish MacLeans perhaps? Do we make many mistakes hanging too much on a name? I noticed in times long past, the Highland surnames were more often first names (if that had any meaning at all)...hence the common debate about whether King MacBeth was any relative of the MacBeans. Too many questions, mostly unanswerable, but I'd be interested in what you had to say.