A Swan in Search of his "True" Clan

[Cygnus]

Being an educator by trade, the very mention of Wikipedia has a tendency to make my eye twitch...

I'm the same way. I work for a university and am often shocked by how often faculty supply me with Wikipedia references for university materials. (Naturally, I send the submission back and request a peer-reviewed source.)

...but the article about Clan Muir does make the point that it's really more complicated than just "picking one of the clans that list your surname as a sept." Note that the article discusses a number of Clans that the surname Muir is associated with, and the geographic areas where those clans were dominant. Determining where your ancestors were from in Scotland really determines which clan to affiliate with.

I actually hadn't ventured into the realms of the Wikipedia link before I read your evaluation of it (and apologize to Campbell for my elitism). I found the read very interesting. My Swan ancestors lived almost exclusively in Midlothian (the exception being a brief stint in Ireland from about 1798/9 to 1802 at the latest). Prior to this time in Ireland, the only location I have is "Scotland". I have a lead that shows that maybe the family lived in Edinburgh prior to their few years in Ireland, but Edinburgh was a big city that was already attracting people in search of a "better life" and, to my knowledge, neither the MacQueens nor Gunns held any territory nearby (though I will concede that the MacQueens were a good deal closer to Midlothian than the Gunns).

At very least, I've learned a bit of Scottish geography from this exercise and at this point am leaning strongly toward clan MacQueen; however, I will continue trying to locate the family prior to the Rebellion of 1798 until I find an answer or lose my sanity!