Ever since I started visiting Scotland regularly, I've kind of wished for a "clan" tartan of my own. A tough sell, since the Rogers side of my family, from which I get my name, never went anywhere near the Scottish highlands, and don't show up on even the most fanciful lists of "septs" and "associated families" I've ever seen.

Which makes this a design project, not a research project. Hooray! Something to do while I wait for my Hawaiian SK to be made.

Thanks to my family's long record in soldiering and ministering, the genealogists in my family can trace the Rogers line back to 1680s Massachusetts. Earlier than that, there is a slight chance that our line goes back to a pair of Rogers who came over on the Mayflower, but I'm told that it's much more likely that our Rogers came over in the later 1600s; a coincidence of names matches up with but cannot be definitively linked to some Rogers who were last seen in one of Cromwell's settlements in Ireland. That line traces back to military and clergy service to the English crown in the English-Scottish borders in Elizabeth's time, and that's as far as my cousins have taken their research on that side of the family.

So between some kind of English origin, my branch of Rogers did some soldiering in the Borders, then did some oppressin-of-the-locals in Ireland (someone had to keep my mother's people in line!), then came to America to do even more oppressin-of-the-locals and soldiering. And everywhere along the way, the Rogers seemed to have spit out a protestant minister or two just about every generation.

My most famous ancestor, for whom I'm named, as was my grandfather, and his grandfather, and so forth, was Robert Rogers, who organized Rogers Rangers in the French and Indian Wars. No reflected glory, there: Later, Robert was a Loyalist during the Revolution, where he was involved in exposing and executing the patriot spy Nathan Hale. The state legislature then outlawed Rogers and also passed a bill divorcing him from his wife and children, who therefore got to stay in the new United States while Robert was exiled and died drunk and penniless in London. I also have an ancestor who died in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812; one of only 27 or so American casualties, and Rogerses appear as volunteers in just about every war from the French and Indian to WWII.

So I turned for inspiration to the many American national, military, and state tartans for inspiration as to patterns and balance. For colors, I opted for shades of blue, for the wanderlust that led earlier Rogers to decide to go cross to the other side of every body of water they found. A hint of green, for the time in Ireland as well as to honor the green uniforms of Rogers Rangers. Black for the long line of Rev. Rogerses in my branch of the family. The dominant design is a triple stripe of yellow against sky blue, which to me symbolizes the origins of the Rogers name as something like "sun-glinting spear". It's like a rank of spear shafts against the sky. Inside the narrower bands of navy is a red stripe centered within white, to echo both the Union flag as well as the American flag, for service to crown and Constitution.

Also, I'm partial to the larger-sett tartans, such as you often see for American states.

So, without further ado, is my latest version of my proposed Rogers tartan. I'd be grateful to hear what the much more knowledgeable critics here have to say, and any suggestions for improving it.