Celtic History : The Different facets of your History

There are different facets of your history. Genealogy is the ancestral research of each individual in your specific lineage. Family name history is the history of the name your family uses. If you have ancestors that were Scottish , you also may be a Sept of a Scottish Highland Clan .

Ancestral research is something you need to look into yourself or pay a professional to investigate for you. There are many programs and websites that can assist in that quest.

Family name history is the history of the names in your lineage. It will tell the origin of the name, a full color picture of the coat-of-arms registered to the name (our source uses the oldest registered coat-of-arms), variant spellings, castles, lands and territories associated with the name, immigrants and colonists to North America, Australia and New Zealand, and notable individuals with the name.

Clan history tells the origin and history of the Clan, full-color picture of the clan badge, castles, lands and territories associated with the clan, the Gaelic name of the clan, a description of the crest, the clan motto. Some of the clan histories also tell the clan war cry, plant badge, and coat-of-arms. Normally, the clan crest is the same as the crest above the helmet on the family coat-of-arms of the same name.

Clans are a tribe of people joined together under the clan chieftan for their common protection. Clans are very territorial. Scottish clans are similar in nature to Native American Indian tribes. They have a chieftan, councils, and offer protection and support to the members. Clans are found predominantly in the Highlands of Scotland where they took root from the Viking tribes and locals joining for their common protection under a territorial clan leader. Not all families in Scotland belong to clans. If you lived in a town or city, you did not need the protection of the clan. You had the mayor, town council, constabulary, etc. for unity and protection. The Clan is composed of the Clan Chieftan and his kin and other families aligned with the clan by territory or other kinship affiliation. The larger, more powerful families were usually the clan heads and the smaller families in the region were usually septs (members) of the clan.