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31st January 07, 08:27 PM
#1
If You're Adopted
As someone who is adopted, I can tell you how difficult and confusing it can be to take pride in a Scottish heritage you may know very little or nothing about. Personally, all I know is that Scottish ancestry is part of my blood, but nothing else.
The good news is that adoptees have a wonderful freedom to pick the tartan they prefer. On the conservative side, traditionalists would recommend that you try and learn your biological history and go with that clan. Modernists have said that you can (and maybe should) adopt the clan of your adoptive parents if they have Scottish history. No doubt they would be honored! Or as a final choice, you can pick whichever tartan you like.
Whether you choose by color or feel a particular bond with a particular clan, the choice is yours. There are universal tartans (like Scottish National or Blackwatch) that you can choose as well. The important thing is to find a tartan that will mean something to you for the rest of your life. Visit a local kiltmaker or view the many tartan websites on the 'net. Above all - make it mean something.
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31st January 07, 08:52 PM
#2
Well said. My great-grandpa Angus Kerr was infact my maternal grandmother's adoptive father. I do have scottish heritage on the other side of the family, but it was my "Papa" Kerr who taught me all about Scotland. So I choose to tell people that he is the source of my scotch heritage.
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31st January 07, 10:59 PM
#3
 Originally Posted by SnakeEyes
Well said. My great-grandpa Angus Kerr was infact my maternal grandmother's adoptive father. I do have scottish heritage on the other side of the family, but it was my "Papa" Kerr who taught me all about Scotland. So I choose to tell people that he is the source of my scotch heritage.
Just goes to show that adoption affects almost everyone in some way.
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31st January 07, 11:10 PM
#4
Ummm, don't wanna drag this thread off topic, but just can't let the "reprehensible" comment slide. This is a fine and honorable organization that also happens to provide pins that could work as kilt pins for adoptees who chose to buy them.
Here's what they say they stand for.
"Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions of North Americans are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
"Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. The right to know one's identity is primarily a political issue directly affected by the practice of sealed records adoptions. Please join us in our efforts to end a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality.
Hoping to stay apolitical, just pointing out their mission and work that have helped many of my adopted friends over the years. You're certainly entiltled to your opinion, but "reprehensible" seems a bit strong for the reality of the organization's mission."
Please don't discourage our kilted adopted brothers.
Ron
Ol' Macdonald himself, a proud son of Skye and Cape Breton Island
Lifetime Member STA. Two time winner of Utilikiltarian of the Month.
"I'll have a kilt please, a nice hand sewn tartan, 16 ounce Strome. Oh, and a sporran on the side, with a strap please."
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1st February 07, 04:38 AM
#5
 Originally Posted by Riverkilt
Ummm, don't wanna drag this thread off topic, but just can't let the "reprehensible" comment slide.
The point's been made, let's move on.
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31st January 07, 09:15 PM
#6
Scotch is a drink, not a ethnicity.
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31st January 07, 09:48 PM
#7
I understand that...I'm adopted, but still in the same family. My 2nd oldest aunt adopted me when I was 3. But I know very little about my "fathers" side of the family seeing as I have never (and will never) meet him. Not a nice guy, wife/child beater, lied to my birth mom saying he wasn't married, blahblahblah. I tend to focus on my geneology much more than anyone else in my family...is there a relation between that and adoption? Probably.
Sorcha
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31st January 07, 10:49 PM
#8
There are lots of fashion tartans out there that are available from kiltmakers. And, if you're adopted, why not adopt a clan that you admire?
Some of the pins at Bastard Nation ( an uppity adoption rights group ) would make a great kilt pin for those who are adopted and wanna wear it so.
http://www.bastards.org/boutique.htm
And, moderators, that's not a "dirty" deal, its a very legitimate adoption rights support group.
Ron
Ol' Macdonald himself, a proud son of Skye and Cape Breton Island
Lifetime Member STA. Two time winner of Utilikiltarian of the Month.
"I'll have a kilt please, a nice hand sewn tartan, 16 ounce Strome. Oh, and a sporran on the side, with a strap please."
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31st January 07, 10:58 PM
#9
 Originally Posted by Riverkilt
There are lots of fashion tartans out there that are available from kiltmakers. And, if you're adopted, why not adopt a clan that you admire?
Some of the pins at Bastard Nation ( an uppity adoption rights group ) would make a great kilt pin for those who are adopted and wanna wear it so.
http://www.bastards.org/boutique.htm
And, moderators, that's not a "dirty" deal, its a very legitimate adoption rights support group.
Ron
Personally speaking, that group seems reprehensible. But what do I know? I'm just their target membership.
But to address your first point, you're absolutely right. When choosing my tartan, I researched many clans and tartans and wanted something that meant something to me. I had to make that choice you're talking about with regard to adopting something I admire.
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31st January 07, 11:40 PM
#10
Fostering
 Originally Posted by IEScotsman
On the conservative side, traditionalists would recommend that you try and learn your biological history and go with that clan. Modernists have said that you can (and maybe should) adopt the clan of your adoptive parents if they have Scottish history.
I have never heard that before. In fact I would think it would be the other way around. My understanding of the clan system is that it was more fluid than many people today realize. Husbands would sometimes become a part of their wives clan, grandchildren their maternal grandparents' clan, children their mother's clan, people who moved to an area where a clan was strong would become part of it, etc.
Historians here on X Marks can tell you more, but there was a custom of fostering at the time of the clan system, as well as later in the the feudal period in which children from one aristocratic/landowning/clan cheif's family would live with and be brought up by another one. As I understand it, it was sometimes something like an exchange of hostages to insure peace between two clans or tribes or lords. Sometimes a family would foster their children with another more successful family in hopes that it would give them opportunites they wouldn't otherwise have. It served to establish lifelong bonds of friendship, or protege-patron or some other sort of relationship between the fostered child and and the fostering family or clan. We have to remember that at that time clan was a more nebulous term than some think of it today, or rather, was nebulous in different ways. Clan is from the Gaelic for "children," but usually included a a group of people related in all sorts of ways. There also must have also been adoptees (such as orphans) and wards back in those days.
So I would think the traditionalist view would be that one is a part of the "clan" that one grew up in.
Last edited by gilmore; 1st February 07 at 01:14 AM.
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