Are You A Clansman?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

This is probably going to be almost as contentious as the What Is A Scot wars of a few weeks ago... I hope not, but ya never know....

Is it your name, your ancestry, or a membership card that gives you bragging rights as a Clan MacX clansman?

Let me step out of the line of fire and ask:

YOUR OPINIONS, PLEASE?

[Jack Daw]

I consider it by my DNA and surname. My clan assocations request a genealogy, but other clan associations do not.

[SteveB]

I guess that I really should join the clan association for the clan of my mother, by genealogical trace.
I was given a fine Scottish kilt in the clan tartan as a pre-teen, as the family (rightly) had figured I had grown to the size that I would be for a while. I wore that kilt from about 12 years old till I grew out of it at 52. I am now saving for another Real MacNeil. I also fattened my way out of my PC, and Argyle jackets and vests. Big money to be spent when I order new kit, as I have decided that it is very unlikely that I will ever be back to the size again... At 14 stone, 10 stone is a long way away.
My father's side may go back to Clan Lamont, but I have not found any evidence of it.
I consider myself a descendant of MacNeil of Barra, by the family tree. I do not know if that means I am an official "clansman" or merely an ofsprung of the tree.

[The Wizard of BC]

I signed up here, I post here. This is my Clan. This is my family.

[Zardoz]

The Irish don't have clans, we have gangs! X-Marks is my only 'clan'.

My wife on the other hand, is related to the Lamont and Thomson clans on her father's side and Stuart and Burns on her mothers.

[jordanjm]

I consider myself descended from Clan MacGillivray, as my surname is a recognized variant of the clan name. I do know however of multiple clans I descend from on my mother's side of the family. I am also descended from English, Irish, Dutch, German (I Think) ancestors. I am a member of my clan association in the USA. I feel closer to my "Scottishness" (is that a word?) than to my Englishness, or Irishness, etc. Others in my family feel a stronger connection to other ancestral groups.

[SteveB]

Steve, you said it right X-Marks is our clan. I just do not yet have a kilt in the clan tartan.
SteveB

[gilmore]

There are none anymore, nor have there been for a few hundred years.

The clan system---alleged descendants of a common, often mythical, progenitor and maybe their retainers---existed in former times in the Scottish highlands (and rarely in the lowlands, which were, as we all know, settled by Northumbrian descendants of Angles, Saxons and Jutes.) It predated feudalism, which absorbed it, making most of the clan chiefs into feudal lords and changing the nature of their relationship with their followers, their clansmen. Later many if not most became mere landlords, sometimes expelling their former clansmen tenants when it became more profitable to raise sheep.

I am quite sure that you could count on maybe one hand the number of Americans who would take up arms and start killing or farming or fishing because some descendant of Scots who have lived south of the border for several centuries told them to. I wouldn't think there are many Britons who would do so either, probably none outside a chief's own family, if that.

Although many of us here had clanmen and women ancestors---and they were properly such in medieval, classical and prehistoric times---face it, today the notion is nothing more than an interesting artifact of one's family history.

[BoldHighlander]

The Irish don't have clans, we have gangs!

That's pretty funny....but not exactly true.

The Irish do have clans, some which have gone back as long as the Scots clans in history (at least). Here's the ones I know of:

Clan Cian
http://www.clancian-carroll.com/

Clan Egan USA
http://home.sprynet.com/~mttaylor/clanegan.htm

Clan Kelly
http://www.clankelly.org/

Clan McAteer Ireland
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~cd200/

Clan McLaughlin of Donegal
http://members.aol.com/lochlan/clanmac.htm

Clan Muir Society
http://www.theclanmuir.org/index.html

Clann Mac Aodhagáin
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/5500/

Doyle Clan
http://www.doyle.com.au/index.htm

Dysert Ó Dea Clan Association
http://www.odeaclan.org/

O'Dochartaigh Doherty Clann
http://www.odochartaigh.org/

Cassidy Clan
http://www.cassidyclan.org/

Clan MacMahon Association
http://www.orgsites.com/ca/clanmacmahon/

Curtin Clan Association
http://www.curtin.org/

Hickey Clan
http://www.hickeyclan.com/

MacDermot Clan
http://www.macdermot.com/

Maguire Clan
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~ger/maguire/

McManus Clan Association
http://members.aol.com/manus/mcmanus.html

O Mahony Society
http://cat.spindata.com/mahony/welcome.html

O'Brien Clan
http://www.obrienclan.com/

O'Gara Clan Association
http://www.ogara.org/

O'Malley Clan Association
http://www.omalley-clan.org/

O'More (O'Mórda) Clan Society
http://www.clanomore.com/

Ryan Clan Association U. S. Sept
http://www.ryans.org/

Sweeney Clan
http://www.sweeneyclan.com/

Waldron Clan Association
http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/Geneal/Fa...ns/Waldron.htm

The Ulster Clans
http://www.ulsterclans.org/index.html

[beloitpiper]

Gilmore, clans aren't what they used to be, but they still exist, albeit in a different form.

Technically, anyone can join any clan, but I consider myself a clansman by surname and ancestry.