Septs and Clans

[tripleblessed]

I've had the same experience. Grew up thinking we were the result of a thousand generations of farmers and schoolteachers; honest, hardworking Welsh, Scots, Irish, and a touch of English to keep us humble . Getting pretty deeply into the genealogy revealed unexpected (and, frankly, undesired) connections into prominent, very prominent, and royal lineages. Connecting into those revealed connections all across Europe, some lines somewhat known back over a thousand years. Coming to terms with what some of them did was a little disconcerting, but I finally realized judgment is above my pay grade, and at any rate, they must be assessed
based on the times in which they lived, not by today's values and customs.

Also realized all descent is direct: that is, you either are or aren't descended. Primogeniture is an artificial
structure not universally practiced or even accepted. My Normans would applaud the concept, my Celts would
laugh, saying you only know who you're mother is, you mostly take her word about your father. The arrival of
DNA testing only reinforces that understanding. The talk shows doing "who's your daddy?" testing have shed
more light on what the the testers refer to as "non - paternal events". Runs about 1 in 10, at a minimum, so
primogeniture quickly becomes untenable. Thus the term "a duke's mixture".