I am at the 300 year marker as of now and hopefully will be working earlier than that some day. I appreciate your response. Regards, Jim At 09:49 PM 09/26/1999 +0100, you wrote: >Hi Jim, > >I think this question is difficult to answer but I will try since nobody >else has responded to you. > >Most of us are lucky if we can trace one or more lines back 300 years and I >would say (subject to correction by experts) that people did not take the >name of the local chief or landowner in that period. > >Before that time Highlanders were clansmen who were, or believed themselves >to be related to their chiefs. However, they would not be known by their >clan names within their own society they would be Jim the son of John i.e. >Seamus Mac Ian. (Apologies in advance for poor spelling of Gaelic words.) >When they left their own society to come south or go west accross the >Atlantic they would probably use a version of their chief's ( their clan's) >name. > >I think a better comparison from your country might be the native Americans. >All of the members of Chiricua Apache Tribe were not related to Cochise but >they al were proud to call themselves Chiricua,. (Apologies in advance for >poor spelling of Native American tribal names. > >The practice was not extensive in the lowlands but in the Borders there was >a similar development with Border clans like the Johnsons, Elliots, >Lindsay's etc. but these names were probably taken several centuries >earlier. > >Hope this helps > >John Shearer > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Jim Fergus <jfergus@sirinet.net> >To: SCOTLAND-GENWEB-L@rootsweb.com <SCOTLAND-GENWEB-L@rootsweb.com> >Date: 26 September 1999 02:50 >Subject: Unidentified subject! > > >> >> Have been advised that tenant farmers, in the old day, did not have, or >>use, a personal surname that they used the surname of the laird, or >>property owner on whose land they worked. Something like the slaves in the >>USA > > > > >==== SCOTLAND-GENWEB Mailing List ==== >Scottish Universities >Their Libraries & Archives >http://www.ozemail.com.au/~jimjar/jimjargg.htm > >============================== >Search the Social Security Death Index online for FREE! >http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ >The most powerful SSDI search engine on the Internet! > >