A Swan in Search of his "True" Clan

[macwilkin]

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.)



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!

I was in a similar situation years ago while researching my Williamson ancestors; while listed as a sept of the Gunns, Mackays and Macfarlanes, my Williamsons were orginally from Dunfermline in the Kingdom of Fife.

T.