More Genealogy

[highlander_Daz]

This website is a comple dead loss, type in the name "taylor" (a distant great cousins name) an it come up with the following

"The taylor family name originated in Kent , located in Scotland "

I think youll find Kent is actually in the south of England !
credibility hits the floor!

[caig]

I, too, am convinced that this site is not reputable. I searched my family name (Caig) and came up with some very basic information ( but true). However, I was offered a "family" Coat of Arms which was depicted. In Scotland there is no such thing as a family Coat of Arms, as arms are assigned to a single person.

Dont touch this site !

[Eujeankilt]

This website is a comple dead loss

To take anything on the internet as the whole gospel truth is very dangerous, but plugging in some ancestral names here led me to investigate further at other sites. When I found this site, I was looking for some way to identify the possible origins of ancestral names. This site got me started. Free advice (from any site) is worth what you pay for it.

As it turns out, my Great-Great-Great Grandmother had an Irish surname (Means) who's ancestors may have come from Scotland. One other site showed a concentration of Means' in Perthshire.

I wouldn't recommend this site a the be all and end all for genealogical research, but any information is helpful. As always, YMMV....

Dale

[mudd]

To take anything on the internet as the whole gospel truth is very dangerous, but plugging in some ancestral names here led me to investigate further at other sites. When I found this site, I was looking for some way to identify the possible origins of ancestral names. This site got me started. Free advice (from any site) is worth what you pay for it.

Aye, that's my take too. But I like any source that tells me I'm more celtic than I thought I was. True or not. :rolleyes:

[Cawdorian]

Take a look at www.electricscotland.com, go the Family Tree page, there are some good articles and great reading on this site.

There is a book by Dr. Thomas Cairney, it is an Ethnology (spelling) that deals with the Origin of the Scottish and Irish Clans and deals in great depth with the origin of surnames and relationships of the Scottish and Irish families.

It's a very good little book, you can find the text of it on the Electric Scotland website.

[auld argonian]

If you read that article in a recent Newsweek, they're finding out all kinds of (to my mind) wonderful things about our genetic makeup through tracing chromosomal thingies and mitochondrial DNA. If you saw some of the special that Louis Henry Gates did about African Americans then you saw some of this tech in action. Gates, who is probably the most pre-eminent African American scholar in the US, found out that by genetic composition he was somethng like 60% Northern European...Quincy Jones is something like a third European genetically. The Newsweek article showed that some members of a group of Jews who based their vocations as Rabbis on their direct descent from Aaron (I think it was Aaron) found out that it was genetically impossible for them to have descended from Aaron.

I find it wonderful because it underscores the fact that we are all interconnected not just by social interaction or some nebulous "we are all fellow travellers on spaceship Earth" thing but by actual blood (if you go back far enough).

So fer sure you're Celtic...hell, Antonio Banderas is probably Celtic if we check his DNA. There's probably a wee bit of Celtic DNA in Shaquille O'neal...and that would be one BIG-*** kilt. If they checked mine deeply enough I'd probably turn out to be Moorish and Korean as well.

I think that the kilt thing kind of tugs at your genetic memory...you see kilts and some little voice inside of you says' "you know, you ought to get one of those...you're supposed to be wearing one". Then, of course, after you get the first one it says, "oh...and a couple of sporrans and another couple of kilts and a prince charlie jacket and..."...I don't think that that's your genetic memory, though.

Best

AA

[Colin]

That was one of the worst "geneology" sites I have yet to see. It actually goes against alot of the stuff I have already learnt from other sources.

nice site, although now I am thoroughly confused. Previous research, as well as most tartan-finder sites associate Thompson with the McTavish clan. This site shows it as a part of the MacThomas clan, meaning I have the wrong tartan.

Anyone have any ideas which is more apt to be correct?

I would think MacThomas to be a more obvious choice. However, this site links both MacThomas and MacTavish http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanthomson.htm and here is the Electric Scotland site http://www.electricscotland.com/webc.../thomson2.html and the official (?) MacTavish site http://www.mactavish.org/

[highlander_Daz]

I really would disregard this website, typing in "Clarkson" reveals it to be part of clan "Clark" -a clan that to my knowledge does not, and never has existed, stick to reputable sites only.

[Kilted KT]

Take a look at www.electricscotland.com, go the Family Tree page, there are some good articles and great reading on this site.

There is a book by Dr. Thomas Cairney, it is an Ethnology (spelling) that deals with the Origin and the Scottish and Irish Clans and deals in great depth with the origin of surnames and realationships of the Scottish and Irish families.

It's a very good little book, you can find the text of it on the Electric Scotland website.

thanks for the link, I found a whole lot of great info I hadn't seen before.

finding that my clan is an ancient highland clan was really fantaastic!

thanks!

[Cawdorian]

Both Thomas and Thompson are septs of the MacTavish Clan, sometimes you will find Thompson listed as a sept of Clan Campbell. The good thing is there are several Thompson tartans and they are all good looking tartans.

Glad I could help you find some of the information you were looking for, IMHO the Electric Scotland website is a good reliable source of information.

My wife is of Stephenson descent which is also a sept of Clan MacTavish.