My last name is Burnside which was derived from our Scottish clan Burns.
I’m half-Scottish on my Mom’s side… We have a bunch of MacDonnell’s, Chisolms and MacDonald’s in our family tree on that side but my Mom was a MacDonnell (Grand-dad was MacDonnell, Nanny was Chisolm)
One nifty thing I learned was that the Gaelic spelling of MacDonnell was MacDhomhnuill (actually my Uncle found that out and told me… but still…) I’m kinda curious as to our history in Scotland Grand-dad only traced back to 1801 when our ancestors first came over… I think we have a few relatives over there (that we know of) cuz my Great Uncle went to visit there a couple of years ago.
A bit hard to help you Lloyd if you can’t give your clan but FWIW I have Scottish ancestry from three of my grandparents and have traced the family back to the early 1700s
McKindlay (Farquarson)
Leitch (MacPherson, MacDonald)
Durrant (Cullen)
SO is Macalpine (broken clan)
I have ancestors who fought on boths sides at the Battle of Culloden, though mostly on the losing side.
It is a little ironic that the family was forced to leave Scotland by their Lairds, who wanted the land for sheep rather than crofters, and became substantial sheep graziers in their own right in Australia.
My father some years back determined that we were Clan Gunn (Hi Scotti! Have you seen the clan homepage?). How he went about the research I can’t tell you–he died a few years ago, so asking him is right out.
Clan McCrae checking in. (I’ve seen a lot of spellings of it… YMMV)
I’ll admit that I have little connection with my roots, though.
Cher3, I spent a few days in Edinburgh this past summer. Quite a lovely town. My friends and I could’na help but pick up the charmin’ Scottish accent while we were there.
The tour guide at the Edinburgh Castle told us that what was lies beneath the kilt is happiness. (say it out loud in a Scottish accent and see if you get it)
I am originally from a very small town in Georgia (Moultrie, less than 17,000) but as far as I’ve been told we have one of the largest (if not THE largest) Scottish geneology libraries in the world. It is the Odom Geneology Library. The web address is http://www.firstct.com/fv/EPO.html but it doesn’t seem to be much help unless you are patient.
The library sponsors a “Kirking o’ the Tartans” ceremony every year at our local Presbyterian Church.
Diver
Greetings. My paternal lineage is Scottish, of the clan MacLachlan (suitably bastardized to the unspellable McLauchlin over the course of several centuries). Additional detail may be found in several books I’m too tired to look up.
I have a full red beard, which would look perfectly in place in Braveheart, so am I allowed to claim I’m Scottish? The Geneology I’ve done seems to indicate that my ancestors were rather indiscriminate in choice of childbearing partners, so I have no idea what I actually am, but does looking Scottish count?
Scottish on my mom’s side, Clan MacLeod, Clan Keith (lowlanders, I know…), and Clan Gunn…possibly Clan MacKay.
Check out some of the resources on http://www.tartans.com and also on http://og-man.net (he’s got genealogy and clan/tartan links.) You’ll probably find that your family names could very well be linked to several different Clans. This is pretty common, and many Clans (MacLeod included) will consider you “family” even if you only have a vague suspicion that you might be related to them.
Good luck, and enjoy the search.
BTW - the chief of Clan MacDonald was also Lord of the Isles (the Isles being the islands off the West Coast of Scotland, south of the Hebrides, which were MacLeod and Morrison holdings)
Mc and Mac can be either Irish or Scottish almost interchangably, although Mac is less common in Ireland.
I’m enjoying your quotes at the bottom of each post, Lloyd. Here’s one for you:
England Forever. Scotland for a Day Longer!
Scottish on father’s side.
My maiden name was Waddell, clan said to be from "somewhere near Edinburgh(?sp) County Cork
Original name was closer to Watelodell which translated roughly to “the watchers on the hill”. I believe my family were highlanders.
Unfortunatly, family history has been difficult to trace because Scottish were thought to be second class citizens and not much recorded history can be found before late 1700’s. My aunt was only able to trace our family tree back that far before running out of leads.
County Cork? That’s Ireland, not Scotland. If Edinburgh’s in any county, it would be Fife (although I’m not sure it’s in any county at all, in the same way as London).
Where did you get that information from? It might explain why you’ve had trouble tracing your family back any further.
All you jocks, bow down before your English master…you’ve got what in your sock?
:runs away::
I have in front of me my grandparents marraige certificate.
James McDonald married Margaret Moffat Messer at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church.
That would make my grandad irish…and my grandmother 1 generation scottish, her folks were all from Germany.
It turns out I’m not really that scottish, but a mixture of irish, german, and scottish.
Thanks for all the cool links people, I really really appreciate it.
New update. My granddad is half scottish and irish…and my grandmother is german and scottish. This stuff is very confusing to say the least. I haven’t even gotten to my dad’s side yet…which is where I got my username from Lloyd.