Quote Originally Posted by The Scotsman View Post
To be quite honest, those of us who wear a particular tartan as an indication of clan affiliation, are not engaged in an unbroken continuation of the historical clan system; rather we are carrying on the 19th century romantic revival of the Scottish clans that was inspired by the system as it existed prior to the mid 18th century.
I believe we're all agreeing violently on that point. My confusion is on how that leads to an "entitlement" based on a surname, and on no other criterion.

My Scots genealogical ties come primarily through my mother, her grandmother, and her grandmother... so you have piqued my interest by defining your terms as categorically patrilineal.

Since I'm a pedant and curmudgeon, categorical statements always interest me, anyway. They just make me want to find a counterexample.