A wee favor tae ask

[glenlivet]

That would be the most important consideration. Looking at the name Wilson, it would seem to me that it would derive from "Will's son" so the original nameholder was a man who was the son of someone named Will or William. This could come from anywhere.

Region would be key.

Awhile back someone started this interesting thread which linked to a name mapper site. What I saw there was pretty consistent with my research, as far as narrowing down to the general western lowland area, but included Ayrshire, Dumfries, Galloway, & the Borders.

My imagination was captured by the mention of Archibald Wilson being a weaver, with a possible link to Stirlingshire (Port of Monteith is now considered Stirlingshire, rather than Perthshire as listed in the old records).
But it is only now imaginary, until I can break through my brick wall.

[glenlivet]

Mark,

If it is indeed Perth, then the Gunns ... can be ruled out automatically. Their territory was far to the north,

OTOH, when I had my Y-chromosome test done, it said my haplotype was R1a, which according to most sources I read, most likely points to Nordic/Viking descent when found in the British Isles. And if the Gunns come from Scandinavians, maybe an ancestor migrated South? Scotland is only about the size of Kansas, after all. :-)

[macwilkin]

OTOH, when I had my Y-chromosome test done, it said my haplotype was R1a, which according to most sources I read, most likely points to Nordic/Viking descent when found in the British Isles. And if the Gunns come from Scandinavians, maybe an ancestor migrated South? Scotland is only about the size of Kansas, after all. :-)

Possible, but I'd want to see the paper trail on it.

Of course, there are a lot of folks in Northern England with Scandinavian heritage as well.

T.

[gilmore]

...

But if I go on naming patterns of their children, which admittedly they didn't slavishly follow, Archie would have named his 1st first born after his own father, or his father-in-law. ...

Another problem with relying on naming patterns (other than that they were not at all uniformly followed) is in doing so childhood deaths, a very common occurence on former times, are often overlooked.

[davedove]

Another problem with relying on naming patterns (other than that they were not at all uniformly followed) is in doing so childhood deaths, a very common occurence on former times, are often overlooked.

And often, when a child died young, the family would often "recycle" the name to another child.

[gilmore]

...OTOH, when I had my Y-chromosome test done, it said my haplotype was R1a, which according to most sources I read, most likely points to Nordic/Viking descent when found in the British Isles. And if the Gunns come from Scandinavians, maybe an ancestor migrated South? Scotland is only about the size of Kansas, after all. :-)...

Only a minority of Scandanavian men are in the R1a haplogroup, as shown here: http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/Wo...groupsMaps.pdf I would not at all rely on being in the R1a haplogroup in itself being dispositive of anything, especially in a country like Scotland where surnames came relatively late.

Also, as shown here: http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk...y=GB&type=name most Wilsons were in the Borders, northwestern England and the southern lowlands of Scotland, far from the Gunn area on the other side of Scotland in Caithness.

Another factor is that several extremely common surnames, such as Anderson, George, Jameson, Nelson, Robinson, Williamson, even Johnson, are claimed as septs of the Gunn clan of which it can be shown both demographically and genetically that very, very few of those having those names have any association with the Gunn clan. These claims are made by Gunn clan associations who, if they were more restrained in their claims, would have very few members, and by tartan merchants who of course have a financial interest in convincing people they are members of a clan in order to sell as many tartan products as possible.

Take a look at Y DNA results of men surnamed Gunn here: http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/gunn/results You will see they are in two main groups, rather closely related by Y DNA standards. They are almost all in haplogroup R1b.

Compare those results with those from the Gunn Sept List surname Project here: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/...xed_columns=on These are much more diverse.

Compounding the problem is that there is no chief of the Gunn clan (so of course it isn't even really a clan, according to the accepted notions of what constitutes a clan), who would normally be the authority that decides which surnames and specific families are septs and which aren't.

If I were you I would hold off on making major purchases that might influence relatives to also make similar purchases, only to discover in a few years that some very basic assumptions were incorrect.

[macwilkin]

Compounding the problem is that there is no chief of the Gunn clan (so of course it isn't even really a clan, according to the accepted notions of what constitutes a clan), who would normally be the authority that decides which surnames and specific families are septs and which aren't.

Slightly off-topic, but I did hear tell that Iain Gunn of Banniskirk, the Commander of the Clan Gunn, was recently given a seat on the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.

Todd

[gilmore]

And often, when a child died young, the family would often "recycle" the name to another child.

Right, one out of the order claimed by those who adher to the theory of naming patterns. E.g., a couple has a first-born son named Andrew, after his paternal grandfather. Another son is born and named Benjamin, after his maternal grandfather. A third is born and named Charles. Andrew dies. A fourth son is born and named Andrew.

The point is, naming patterns MAY and only may, provide a clue, and do not establish an irrefutable fact.

[sathor]

I know I am 'leaching' onto this thread, but if you have that access, I'd love to know more about the 'Alexander' tartan the ferret pulled up. I find it 'amusing' that it credits a person with my dad's name, but I would like to know more about it, it doesn't look too bad, even if i would have to put out over 600 for a kilt made of it...

[gilmore]

Slightly off-topic, but I did hear tell that Iain Gunn of Banniskirk, the Commander of the Clan Gunn, was recently given a seat on the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.

Todd

But still he is commander, not chief. The last I heard, which was a few years ago, was that there are three claimants to the chiefship. I was told that two are Scots, but the one with the best claim is an American who was not interested in it, and that there things have stood for several years.