ATTENDANCE IS VIA ZOOM ONLY.
Are you in a Clan? Possibly. But only about 1/3 of ancestral Scots can claim to have come from a Clan, so possibly not!
Clans were a territorial/kinship/quasi-military phenomenon of the Highlands and the (Eastern) Borders. The Lowlands – the majority of Scotland’s population – had no Clan system. The “clan system” was one, but not the only, consequence of importing the Anglo-Norman feudal system to Scotland.
Seeking your Scottish ancestry and engaging with all aspects of Scottish history and culture is to be encouraged, but it must be done in the full knowledge that much of the mythology about clans, surnames, tartans and the like is just that. It is mainly the descendants of those who were pushed off the lands by their own chiefs and lairds, who chose to leave the Highlands for a better life in the Lowlands and subsequently overseas, or who had already spurned Scotland and emigrated by the time the Clans were broken, who are the backbone of the Scots abroad and the great supporters of Highland Games, pipe band contests and all the other trappings of “Scottish identity” in America, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and other parts of the Empire.
This talk will cover:
• Who are “The Scots”? – ancient ethnicities and Y-DNA
• What is a clan or Family?
• The nonsense of ”Septs”
• Does our Clan or Family have a Chief, and if not, can we have one?
• Tartans and Heraldry
• Authenticity in Scottish culture
There will be ample opportunity for Qs & As.
Dr. Bruce Durie is considered one of Scotland’s top genealogists and Heraldists, with an international reputation. He is perhaps best known for his eight-year BBC radio series, “Digging Up Your Roots” and “A House with A Past”.
He has authored over 30 books, including the best-selling “Scottish Genealogy” (now in its 4th edition), “Ordinary of Arms vol III”, “Companion to the Ordinary of Arms vol III”, “Your Scottish-American Ancestry”, “Songs and Stories of the Jacobite times and the five Jacobite Risings - Words, music and history” and a Centenary edition of J.H. Stevenson's classic “Heraldry in Scotland (1914)”, with a new Introduction.
Born in Fife and long resident there, in Glasgow and in Edinburgh, he now lives in Aberdeen. His background is in medicine and neuropharmacology, as well as holding a doctoral degree in history and education.
Holding the Lord Lyon’s Commission for Right of Audience at the Court of the Lord Lyon, Dr Durie regularly petitions for Coats of Arms and other Ensigns Armorial on behalf of Scots and those of Scots ancestry worldwide.
He founded, delivered and ran the much-acclaimed Postgraduate Program in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, including a full-time, online, one-year Masters Genealogical Studies programme.
As Fulbright Senior Scottish Studies Scholar 2016, he spent eight months researching “Scottish Migration into Colonial America” at St Andrews University, Laurinburg, North Carolina, USA
Other honours and awards:
• Shennachie (Genealogist and Historian) to the Chief of Durie
• Elected to the prestigious AcadémieInternationale de Généalogie (the only member from Scotland) and appointed Consigliere in 2023.
• Founding Member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (www.qualifiedgenealogists.org)
• Founding Member of the Editorial Board of two scholarly, peer-reviewed journals: Genealogy (www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy) and The Journal of Genealogy and Family History
• Honorary Fellow of the Institutum Genealogiae, Heraldicae Vexillologiaequ