Family History - Scottish Roots

Since I have been called as a family history consultant for our ward, I have spent some time going over the family history material available on LDS.org. One particular video caught my interest. It is called Clan McCloud (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-08-05-clan-mccloud?lang=eng) It is a story of how a family's interest in their heritage was peaked when the son suddenly announce he wanted to learn how the play the great highlands bagpipes, and the effect that connection to their ancestors had on the rest of the family.

Flag of Scotland

It made me wonder about Scottish heritage there might be in my family. I knew JoAnne had significant Scottish roots, but was not sure about my own family.  Sure enough I found I was connected to Clan Duncan. This made me curious about clans, and tartans, and things Scottish.  This is not meant to be a scholarly study, and is likely overly simplified, but here are some of the things I found out.

CLANS:
I thought a clan was a Scottish family.  Well, it is more than that. A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship. In Scotland they have an official structure recognized by the Court of the Lord Lyon which regulates Scottish heraldry and coats of arms. Clans generally identify with geographical areas,  and historically clan members were often not even related to the clan chief whose name the clan bears. Clan members could be tenants of the chief's lands or anyone who offers allegiance to that clan chief. They often adopted the clan name as their family surname.

Today, clans with a recognized clan chief actually have a legal identity in Scotland. Clans without a chief are referred as armigerous clans which is to say they are real clans but do not have a special legal class in Scottish law.

Clan map from Wikipedia

CLANSMEN or CLANSWOMEN:
According to the Lyon Court website, they are "the Chief's relatives, and all members of the extended family called the "Clan" whether bearing the Clan surname or that of one of his septs (allied families), that is all those who profess allegiance the that Chief and wish to demonstrate their association with the clan."

TARTAN:

This man's outfit will set you back over $1100

The association of tartan patterns with specific clans is a relatively recent invented tradition, and is the product of Victorian romanticism about Scotland. Patterns of plaid were originally associated with regions rather than specific clans and were based more on what materials were available to weavers in that region to produce natural dyes. But if a particular clan dominated a region, that pattern would naturally become associated with that clan. The naming and registration of tartans began in 1815. Having said that, tartans have been associated with specific clans for over 200 years.

Today there is an official tartan authority that registers tartan patterns not only for clans, but for families, corporations, and other organizations.  Several US states have officially registered tartans. Clan tartans carry no legal restrictions and anyone can wear or use any clan tartan that they like. There are restrictions on corporate tartans set up as trademarks. Tartan scarves, tams, ties, kilts and other items are readily available - some on Amazon.com!

CREST BADGES:

Fictional clan crest badge

The use of a official crest or coat of arms is restricted to one person at a time. So the crest for the Munro family belongs only to the chief of the clan Hector W. Munro. Use by anyone else is considered identity theft and is punishable under Scottish law.

However, clansmen and clanswomen may wear their Chiefs Crest encircled with a strap and buckle bearing the Chief's Motto or Slogan. The strap and buckle is the sign of the clansman, and he demonstrates his membership of his Chief's clan by wearing his Chief's Crest within it.

There are no official lists of those are members of a clan, and badges can be readily purchased and worn by anyone unless a clan chief specifically rejects their allegiance. Badges are usually made of silver or pewter.

So here are some family tartans and badges I have found.

JoAnne

She is from the South with a strong Scots/Irish background

Clan Munro

JoAnne is the direct descendent of Robert Munro, 14th Baron of Foulis (d. 1547), Chief of Clan Munro through her 4th great-grandmother, Ann Monroe. Ann was a cousin to President James Monroe.

Crest: An eagle perching Proper

Motto: DREAD GOD

Chief: Hector W. Munro of Foulis

Seat: Foulis Castle, Ross-shire

Munro Crest Badge and Tartan

Clan Abercrombie

JoAnne is 5th grand-daughter of Elizabeth Abercrombie
Crest: Falcon rising belled Proper
Motto: PETIT ALTA (Latin - He seeks high deeds)
Chief:  none
Seat: Fife

Abercrombie Crest Badge and Tartan

Clan MacKenzie

JoAnne is 13th grand-daughter of Catherine MacKenzie (wife of 13th Baron Hector Munro)
Crest: A mount in flames Proper
Motto: LUCEO NON URO (Latin: I shine not burn) I like this motto
Chief: John Ruaridh Grant MacKenzie, 5th Earl of Cromartle
Seat: Castle Leod, Ross-shire

MacKenzie Crest Badge and Tartan

Clan Gordon

 JoAnne is the 15th grand-daughter of Janet Gordon (spouse of Thomas, 3rd Lord Lovat)
Crest: Issuant from a crest coronet Or a stag's head (affrontee) Proper attired with ten tines Or.
Motto: BYDAND (Latin: Remaining, abiding, steadfast)
Chief: Granville Charles Gomer Gordon, 13th Marquess of Huntly
Seat: Aboyne Castle, Aberdeenshire

Gordon Crest Badge and Tartan

Vanessa

My daughter-in-law is also from the South
I can only see her Rayfield line in Familysearch

Clan McArthur

Vanessa is the 4th great grand-daughter of Elizabeth McArter. McArter is a variation on the name McArthur

Crest: Two laurel branches in orle Proper

Motto: FIDE ET OPERA (Latin - By fidelity and labour)

Chief: John Alexander MacArthur of that Ilk

Seat: Castle Kennedy House, Wigtownshire

MacArthur Crest Badge and Tartan

Gary

Clan Duncan

My 7th great grand-mother was Alice Ann Duncan

Crest: On waves of the sea Argent s lymphad proper under sail Or flagged Gules the sail charged with a clarion Gules

Motto: SAVOUR THE MOMENT

Chief: none

Duncan Crest Badge and Tartan

Clan Galloway

My 2nd great grandmother was Rosanna Galloway

Crest: A mound, bespread with the rays of the sun Proper embraced between two corn-ears in saltire, and ensigned with a crossiet Or

Motto: HIGHER

Chief: None

Clan Galloway Crest Badge and Tartan

Lindsey Stirling Summer Tour 2016

Back in about May, JoAnne got tickets for Kira and me to go see Lindsey Stirling at Oven's Auditorium in Charlotte. We just about forgot about the concert until the bishopric was considering whether to have a meeting this Tuesday (19 July) and one of the other members remarked he was taking his daughter to the concert. That is when I remembered Kira and I were going, too!

Concert started at 8pm, so we left the house a little after 6. Traffic was an issue but we got to Oven's right before 7pm which was when the doors opened. Our seats were pretty good, in the mezzanine, left of center but not against the wall. We had seats BB10 and 11. I wanted BB8 :-) .

View from our seats

The opening act started at 8pm. I don't remeber the artist's name, but she was a "Power Rock" act. I really wanted to like her, but quite frankly, her songs all sounded the same, with loud verses and painfully loud choruses. Kira and I both were sitting there trying to tactfully put our fingers in our ears to stop the noise. Thankfully, she only lasted 30 minutes!

Even though the stage was reset for Lindsey by 8:40, she didn't come on until 9pm. It is kind of hard to see from the picture, but the front 2/3 of the stage was bare floor, with a series of platforms on the back 1/3 of the stage. The keyboard/guitar player was the platform to our left and the drummer to the right. They would periodically bring out screens about 3-4 ft wide by about 8 ft high. They could project images on the front of the screens, or they could shine lights from behind to silhouette a performer behind the screens.  They would also project images on the white area on the proscenium arch, and a screen at the rear of the stage and on the front of the platforms. 

One of the early number featured her dancers as zombie coming out from behind tombstones. Kira noticed that one of the judges who dissed her on American's Got Talent had their name on one of the tombstones!!!

Internet picture of a Las Vegas Performance
without the scrim in front of her

The lighting effects were amazing. The picture above is from one of the numbers they did called Elements.  The costumes were a little different last night and you can only see part of the effects.  Before the number they dropped a full stage-wide scrim from the proscenium arch. They projected rain, fire, forests onto the scrim, the front of the platforms, the white areas on the arch, and onto the back wall. The performers were mainly behind the scrim but lit so you could see them clearly. It made them look like they were in the middle of a fire, or storm, or forest. It was awesome. (I may run out of superlatives before I am finished!)

She did numbers from her new album that will be released next month, but she also did her old favorites.  There was a medley of her games tunes (Skyrim, Zelda, Assasins' Creed, etc with clips form the videos), Crystallize, Shatter Me, and my favorite, Roundtable Rival. The girl who did her opening did the vocals for Shatter Me as was actually pretty good on that number. Lindsey also performed the song she wrote for Pete's Dragon called Something Wild, and had video clips from the movie running on the screens.

At the end there was a standing ovation (of course!) A few people got up to leave. They messed up. She came out and did an encore that morphed into an incredible medley from Phantom of the Opera. It was after 10:30 before we got out.

In case you wondered, she really does do all the running, jumping, and dancing while playing the violin. Do not get into a limbo contest with Lindsey. She will beat you and she will be playing the violin while she does it. My only very minor complaint - even Lindsey was too loud (but not as loud as opening act). Darling, making it louder does not make it better.

So if she comes to a auditorium near you, I can recommend the show. If you like the videos you will love the show.

Family Christmas 1953 - 2000

Mom

My Eyes

Joshua and the Bubble Machine

At Last I See the Light

My Everything

Young Jessi and Peter

Happy Birthday, Nathan 12 - 18 June

This is going to be a supplemental blog to Vanessa's Happy Birthday Nathan blog. This will pretty much be a picture dump of the photos JoAnne and I took during the week. As Vanessa wrote, Joshua and Nathan came over to our house on Monday, 13 June. Joshua had previously sent a request list of things he wanted to do at Nani's house, which included playing in the sprinkler, squirt gun fight and water balloon fight. We were able to check them all off. At the end of the week we all went to the Great Wold Lodge in Concord NC.

13 June, sprinklers

Also did some jumping on Switzer's trampline

On the 14th of June, those who were not working went to Columbia to the South Carolina Children's Museum

That evening while Matt and Vanessa went to the temple we all had pizza at Empire Pizza.

Wednesday was water balloon/squirt gun wars day.

Great Wolf Lodge

On Thursday, 16 June, Matt took his board certification exams. Vanessa went up to Raleigh with him on Wednesday. They came back to Concord on Thursday and joined Nani and the boys at the Great Wolf Lodge. Pop Pop joined as soon as he could get off work. After an afternoon at the water park, and dinner, we had a birthday party for Nathan in the hotel room.

Restaurant looked over the water park

Birthday party - casual dress

Someone is a fan of Paw Patrol

On Saturday morning, we had to try to get Nathan up

Then we went to breakfast in the lodge

After another hour or two of swimming, we had to check out of the hotel. But wait!!! Is that a mall Nani sees across the freeway?  Off to the mall!

Shopping is boring! Pop Pop and Nathan went to the play area

Saw this at the Lego store. Sent a copy to our European travelers.

Mandatory stop

After shopping as long as we could stand, Matt, Vanessa, Joshua and Nathan are off to Blacksburg for birthday party #2. Nani and Pop Pop are off to get the dogs out of jail.