Quote Originally Posted by BoldHighlander View Post
I'm sorry but I have nothing to add to your query, other than somewhere I once read something that primarily agrees with Jock's suspicions.

I have also heard that (modern) clan societies influence these lists as well....in the case of Clan Donald its through genealogical research (the addition or deletion of sept/clan names). As to the how or when their list was first developed, that I couldn't tell you.
Oh, I have been a frequest visitor to Skye over the years and have dropped in at the Clan Donald centre many times, there's a very good annual piping comp there, and the food is superb. However, they couldn't provide me with any instances at all of Sanderson being a sept, yet it's out there in print, and has been for a long time, around 160 years.

The pedantics are mad too, Sanderson is a sept of MacDonnell, but Sandison is a sept of Clan Gunn and Saunderson is a sept of Clan MacAlister? Jings, crivvens and Help ma Boab!!

Still, it's nothing to lose sleep over. I was thinking about getting another kilt and was dithering about going for a MacDonnell of Glengarry tartan. If there was a family connection it might have influenced my choice, that's all. As it happens, this has just left me as undecided as before. Thanks.