Three Cheers for Cyndi for her thoughtful response. As a welsh-tartan-wearing person, I found many points in her letter that rang true with my own experience in regard to honoring the ancestors and whatnot.

Also, her point about the fact that most of us probably wouldn't be wearing tartan anything if it hadn't been for the mid-19th century ENGLISH lords reviving the tradition is well put. That jibes well with my and my wife's experience when speaking with various scots during our trip there in 2003.

Plus, you never know where your ancestor-searching might take you. My uncle, in from Holland, just recently found out at a bridge tournament that the folks sitting across from him and his wife were the children of some jewish survivors of WWII who had been saved by my grandfather's connections in the underground. THEY told him that Landman (his last name) is most likely descended from a GERMAN JEWISH family (Landmann) from around Essen in Germany from the 1500's....they had looked it up apparently.

SO, now i am apparently of Welsh, Dutch, German, English, Jewish descent....now how's that for confusing the issue?!? Anyone got a good tartan pattern for that?!?