Saturday, January 26, 2008

Gentleman, Show Your Tartans!

My bloggy friend across the Pond gave a blog challenge today, which necessitated two posts for today. GASP!



She is preparing for a Scottish Supper, haggis and all, and showed the world her tartan. And challenged the rest of us to do the same.



Steve's family is Scots-Irish, a group of Americans who hailed from Scotland, stopping over in Ireland first. He has had a bear of a time trying to find his tartan, although after much studying, he discovered he belongs to Clan MacDonald. There are myriad tartans for the MacDonalds, but here is one...



But if you look up his Irish tartan, you get this, from the Monaghans....





Ugh. I'll take the Scottish tartan, thank you very much.

My maternal grandfather was from Canada, his family coming from England. Granddaddy adored all things Scottish and lamented that he was not Scottish himself. His heart would fair to burst when he heard bagpipes and one of his favorite vacations was the one they took to England and Scotland.

And elderly gentleman from Scotland once told me that "if your heart beats faster at the sound of the 'pipes, you must be Scottish." Hmm.....

Not long after Granddaddy died, my Grandmother asked me to do some genealogy research for her on the Internet. She had already done quite a bit, going back in some cases to the 1500's, and had quite a book made for both her family and Granddaddy's. In my research, I discovered that, not one, but TWO of Granddaddy's ancestors were of Scottish heritage. Oh, how he would have loved to have known that!

So, while it took Steve quite a while to find his Clan, I discovered I belonged to TWO!!! MacBeth...

and MacLaren....

Unfortunately, neither Steve nor I have any articles of clothing in our clan tartans. Steve would love to have a kilt, but those are quite expensive and I don't foresee him wearing it any more often than once a year.

And, Dorothy, for the record, I'm awfully glad you don't bear a grudge. :^D

So, check here and then show us YOUR tartan!

5 comments:

Laura said...

Love your tartans and your family stories. When I read that you have MacLaren's in your ancestry, I immediately thought of a book series that I love - one book from the series in particular. You might enjoy "Did You Declare the Corpse" by Patricia Houke Sprinkle. The main character travels to Scotland to trace the heritage of her ancestors.... the MacLaren's. :) Here is a link to it at Amazon in case you are interested.... http://www.amazon.com/Did-You-Declare-Corpse-Thoroughly/dp/0451217802/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201394919&sr=1-13

Unknown said...

That sounds like a great book. I love mysteries! I'll definitely look that up at the library!

Romany said...

Ginger, you have a great sense of humour!

How wonderful that you discovered some Sottish ancestry for your grandfather! It sounds like he knew it deep in his heart!

So is your family from the original arcadians who came from Canada to Louisiana? My history of that preiod is not good, so I probably have all the timings wrong.

Unknown said...

No, Dorothy, my Granddaddy's family moved from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan to Washington State when he was a youngster. His father came from England and his mother's family had come a generation before from England.

The Cajuns (Acadians) came from the New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island provinces on the Atlantic coast in the mid 1700's.

Teeny said...

Loved this challenge and the history behind it! Took you up on it - have a look at our tartan :-D