Hold My Kilt! My Scottish heritage.
I consider myself a Spiritual Journeyman. Part of my journey has been rooted in studying ancestry and ancestral healing. I have set out to explore my ancestry in this life, and to find out who I was in my past lives. Every part of our being is just extraordinary and has many layers. Each layer offers hours of exploration, and the segments of each layer offer the same. Many of my blogs are going to be devoted to my discovery and research of these segments and layers. They will be informative to my learning as I journey. I may dig deeper and find a different story or maybe "oh, I got that one wrong", it is all part of the learning process and I am learning as I go.
My wife, Rebekah, and I both have Scottish ancestry in this lifetime. I have a small 6% claim to being Scottish, while Rebekah can claim 30%. We have been looking recently into the Scottish clan system to see who, where, what our ancestors belonged to.
Many believe the Gaelic language came to Scotland via Ireland in the 10th century. Gaelic was spoken all over Scotland until it declined and was ultimately replaced with English upon the unification of England and Scotland in 1707.
The word clan in the Gaelic language meant family or children. However, it was common for most members of a clan to not be related.
Most believe that clans emerged in Scotland around 1100 AD and were originally descendants of kings. The very first clan was presumed to be Clan Donnachiadh or better known as Clan Robertson.
The clans were mainly a kindred of people who lived off the land. Cattle were the clan's main financial source, but also the main cause of clan feuds. Most of the Scottish clans had their own chief who ruled over the geographical location they resided in. As stated earlier, not all members of the Scottish clans were related. The people residing in the geographical area of the Clan, would take the name of the clan chief to show loyalty.
Scottish clans have their own coat of arms and tartan pattern dating back to the 19th century. The latter could be made into kilts and other clothing patterns.
The Scottish clan system remained mostly intact until the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The loss to the English army caused many Scots to immigrate to other countries, including the British America Colonies.
Today many Scottish clans still meet and get together with the largest being "The Gathering" in 2009, when 47,000 Scots from all over the world came to Edinburg.
Wow. As I said, just a segment of a segment of a layer and we have not even scratched the surface. There is so much to learn about all aspects that were just covered. So much to learn about that 6% of me that I knew nothing about. And then, maybe I shouldn't say it, but what if I was a Scottish clan chief in a past life who spoke Gaelic?
I hope you have learned something from this blog. I know I have, and I want to keep learning. By the way, Rebekah is from the Cameron clan, and I am from the Stewart clan. What Scottish clan are you from? While you figure that out, I'm going to be looking for Gaelic speaking Scottish clan chiefs who feuded over cattle, fought at the Battle of Culloden, and immigrated to the British America Colonies to see if I can find my ancestors, or better yet, Me!
By Michael Walters
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