CLAN AND FAMILY

SOCIETIES

Scottish Clan and Family societies invite you to visit the Clan Tent area at the Games and join with them in exploring the heritage of Scotland's historic clans and families!

As late as the early nineteenth century, the social system of the Scottish Highlands was based on an extended family unit--the clan--whose members were bound together and to the land by geography, personal loyalty to a hereditary patriarch-the chief, and a fierce pride in the history and lineage of their ancestors. Likewise, in the Lowlands, the great families preserved a feudal heritage intimately interwoven with the great events of Scottish history. This indomitable pride in family and the unique way of life that emerged from it over the centuries have lent much of the color and romance that Scottish history is famous for and continue still to be distinguishing marks of Scots everywhere.

Today, long after the dissolution of the old clan system, modern clan and family societies seek to rekindle the warm bonds of kinship and family pride in Scots now scattered to the four corners of the earth. For many of Scots descent, whose heritage is often now only dimly remembered and understood, these organizations can help to re-forge the link to a historic tradition that is rich, colorful, distinctive and socially cohesive.

In addition to providing a vital medium of social intercourse for their members, clan and family societies are often active in efforts to preserve and celebrate Scotland's rich ethnic cultural traditions, including history and language studies, traditional music and dancing, literature and other folk arts.

When you visit the Clan Tents, colorfully festooned with heraldic banners, clan tartans and replicas of ancient armaments, and equipped with sept lists and reference literature, you will find their inhabitants eager to share with you their knowledge of their clan's history and their pride in its traditions, and to offer every possible help and encouragement to those seeking to trace their family roots.

Authorities presently recognize well over a hundred historic Scottish clans and families