For those of you interested in names/ancestors that show up in Ireland, check out these links...

http://www.thauvin.net/chance/ireland/

...which link you to a number of good resources..

http://minerva.ucc.ie:6336/dynaweb/a...xtView/5;pt=91

Which is an online symopsis of quite a thorough reserach project, and a VERY handy one, for quick information on a particular name going back to 1659. For myself, personally it's interesting to note that th e1659 atlas records O'Naughtan and Naughtons but not O'Knights or Knights. I could go on about that, but I'll let you look into your own names of interest, instead.

This one is handy...

http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/index.cfm

Do the surname search over on the left, and you'll get a nifty map that shows the distribution of that name, plus a numbers of related names in Ireland in the 1860 census.

ANY-way, I've discovered that my McKnight ancestor emigrated from Ulster to Pennsylvania in 1733. That makes him one of the "Ulster Scots", eh? The 1733 date puts this guy coming to America a few decades before the formalization of tartan-clan was starting to get going. However, I understand that the "Ulster Red" tartan is rather older than this.

So my question is...what's the relationship between the Ulster Scots and the Ulster (particularly the red) tartans? How far back do the Ulster tartans go? Whowore them?

Many thanks!

Alan