Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
I don't know that there is necessarily an inconsistency between that and " 'Clan' means family. If you are a part of that family, then you are already a member of that clan. If you aren't a member of that family, there is no way to join that clan.
Not quite, Gilmore. "Family" does relate to "clan" but "clan" does not necessarily relate to "family". For example, a Lord Lyon edict that all of the name Shaw (in Scotland) are related was later adjusted to all of the "Highland" name Shaw are related, and then to something like all of those with the name Shaw are related to Mackintosh and to Clan Ay.

Confusing? For sure, but what this really means is that some of our forebears (in the Highlands) through the years acquired surnames derived from our descendancy; others acquired them because they chose to live among those with a dominant name and adopted it (or were adopted by it!); some had home-lands taken over -- however -- by neighbours and changed their names to suit their changed circumstance.

Today that earlier Lord Lyon's ruling is taken to mean: "those who are of or descended from a recognised clan". In other words, if you bear the name Macgillivary you are a Macgillivary. This, despite the fact that you may be descended from the Macgillivarys of Mull and formerly dependant on the Macleans for your livelihood rather than the Macgillivrays of the Central Highlands who are today reconised as Clan Macgillivray.

Even more confusing? Definitely. And it's made even more so by the belief/legend that the Cental Highlands' Macgillivrays are descended from those on Mull. A common problem with clan-connection in the Highlands.

The basis for "clan" membership, therefore, is territorial. If you derive from a region of Scotland (Strathdearn, in the Macgillivray example) you are of the clan that dominated that region in times past, regardless of what your name is today.

That cannot be altered, no matter your wish, except: that you have married into the teritorial "clan" and have accepted its chief as your own, or live in the ancestral lands and, similarly, accept the teritorial chief as your own.

Clan Associations are entirely different.