My father always said that we had Scottish roots to Clan MacKay and Clan Macbeth. I always wanted to get the details from him, but he recently passed away and this like many other things was left undiscussed. He always liked to wear tartan ties so my brothers and I donned them for his funeral. Two wore Clan Macbeth and one Clan MacKay. He spent a lot of time while alive doing geneology and left a detailed tree for me to evaluate.
The Clan MacKay is pretty easy to find, going back to Alexander McCoy, born around 1735 in Sutherlandshire. Wife unknown. He and his son James moved to the US sometime after.
The Clan Macbeth is a little more ambiguous. The only thing i could find was a Beatty line that was in the US in 1818 and to my understanding was a surname that was part of Clan Macbeth.
What he didn't tell me is that on my mother's side, that I have ancestors from Clan Lyon. It is very clear that they were in Glen Lyon in the 17 century and maybe back to the 14th century in Glamis, Augushire. The Lyons married many other family names from many different areas of Scotland. I am going to get a map and mark all the places in hope that I can visit them one day.
The Scots are just a small portion of a large family tree inlcuding a lot of English, Irish, and Welsh. There are also a lot of German, Dutch, and some French and Swedish. The latest to come to the states was my great grandmother from Ireland and a great grandfather on my dad's side, also from Ireland. Most members of the tree came across the ocean in the 18th and many even in the 17th centuries. I even have ancectors that came on the Mayflower.
Hope I didn't bore you with this. Although i am many gernerations removed from Scotland, I can't wait to buy my plots of land which i will do as soon as my ship comes in, or my condo refinances. Whichever happens first.
Harv, soon to be Lord Harv
