Tartan Help - Probably way to much info, but now I gotta zero in on this option

[figheadair]

This topic has come up here on XMarks a number of times, and it's one of several topics on which I've noticed a dichotomy between Scots and USAians.

We here in the USA tend to look at our family as a whole, male and female lines, for tartans to wear, whereas Scots have often expressed the opinion that one's tartan must come from the direct male line.

I've found that ironic due to one of the few things known about the Picts is that they traced descent through the female line.

That (Pictish matrilineal descent) is now discounted as a later myth. The recent BBC Podcast on the Picts is an interesting listen - link.

[tripleblessed]

Another way to look at this whole thing is -

It is not about what name you currently have. If you go back even 5 generations you would have 32 grandparents and 32 different names.

So you do your geanology. Follow the paper trail back to where your people come from in Scotland.

For some of us, it's a bit simpler, especially those whose folk came into the colonies and moved on into frontier
locales. Few choices for marriage; whoever was near and would have you, kin or no. My mother's grandparents
were first cousins, and were first cousins to my father's great grandfather. Plus, migration patterns had parallel
lines living near and marrying each other in three different colonies/states across the years. Back a few generations,
I have far fewer ancestors than the math would suggest. Some might say that explains the inanity/insanity you
see appearing here under my user name.

[OC Richard]

For some of us, it's a bit simpler, especially those whose folk came into the colonies and moved on into frontier locales. Few choices for marriage; whoever was near and would have you, kin or no. My mother's grandparents were first cousins, and were first cousins to my father's great grandfather.

My own family tree is full of that sort of thing, due to my family being the first European settlers in that part of Appalachia, and being joined later by a small number of other founding families.

They say "West Virginia: two million people, ten last names" and while that's an exaggeration what is true is that when you get out into the remote areas there will be only a few different last names in any small region, due to a small number of founding families and few incursions from outsiders over the last 200 years.

Thus my last name is Cook and in certain areas (around Oceana in particular) it seems like half the people are named Cook. In my family tree there was at least one marriage between a girl named Cook to a boy named Cook, and both mothers having the maiden name Cook, everyone descended from the 18th century settler John Cooke. Yet there were local laws against marrying people deemed too closely related, which seem to have been scrupulously followed.