The Monarchy and the kilt

[BobsYourUncle]

Ah, OK. So matrilineal Scottishness really is acceptable by most Scots? I thought it was generally accepted in Scotland that only the father's lines mattered.

During what period in history? In Celtic societies, if you go back far enough, inheritance and family relations were reckoned through the mother--there was physical evidence as to who the mother was, fatherhood was a great deal less certain. Although scholars dispute it, the Picts are said to have had a matrilineal system of succession for their rulers.

Clan association can be either matrilineal or patrilineal. One must distinguish between the way families and clans worked in general, as opposed to succession to kingship or clan chieftanship. Succession of clan chiefs took place according to something called tanistry, which in practice combined inheritance with consent of the clan. For a general overview [weak in source citations], see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottis..._and_authority

It was when the Lowland and English legal systems came to prevail in Scotland that male inheritance became the way property was transferred from one generation to another.

Of note to those conducting genealogy searches, the cultural influence of this matrilineal historical practice was preserved when the church began to keep written Parish registers. In Scotland, the wife did not lose her birth name in the registers even after marriage--accordingly, I , and others, have had great success in tracing female lines of descent in the Old Parish Registers, now available online at Scotlandspeople.org.

So, for me, the bottom line is that female lines remain valid in deciding clan association, even if they ceased to be the primary way of determining property inheritance long, long ago.

I have no idea how this issue is viewed by people in Scotland currently.