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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) => Topic started by: nineyman on Friday 08 June 12 13:25 BST (UK)
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Hi everyone
I am hoping to contact anyone who is or has researched the shanks family, primarily of the Linlithgow area, christian names include William john Alexander, George and Archibald. I am hoping to find the legal Tartan attached to the name
Thanks in advance for any info
Son of Nineyman
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This site has a list of all registered tartans http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk. It is maintained by the National Registers of Scotland. There doesn't appear to be a Shanks tartan registered yet, but you can obtain from them advice on designing and submitting an application for registration.
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Nineyman - have a look at this thread: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,600795.0.html
The excellent and comprehansive reply by 'Forfarian' very recently might give a you a better understanding of what the tartan issue is all about.
Anne
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Malkie, thank you for clarifying your position and for the web address.
Alys thank you for checking the register.
Anne I followed the link and indeed do have a better understanding of the tartan issue, we have traced the shanks line to 1640 and found several named clan connections through marriage, so in theory a living shanks could wear "rightfully" any of the named clans in her tree.
Thank you all
Dick
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Dick, if your ancestors go back to 1640 in the Linlithgow area then I doubt any of them would have came across 'clan tartan'
If you like the look of a tartan then wear that one, there is no "rightfully" or "wrongfully" ;) ;D
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nineyman, you are, quite honestly, on a wild goose chase.
I repeat what I said in the thread Anne referred to: "Most Lowland Scots in the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries probably regarded Highlanders as dangerous savages and would have been horrified at any suggestion that they were connected in any way to a Highland clan."
The surname Shanks, according to G F Black's The Surnames of Scotland is of territorial origin, from Midlothian. It is very definitely Lowland and to the best of my knowledge and belief there is no Shanks tartan.
sancti is absolutely right. If you want to wear tartan, pick a pattern you like and get one with it. There are no laws about entitlement to wear a tartan, and no-one will be in the least concerned whether or not you have any connection to the clan, family, district or organisation whose tartan you are wearing, assuming they can actually name it, which is doubtful.
If you do have ancestresses with a Highland surname, or the surname of a Lowland or Border family which has adopted a tartan along with the trappings of a clan, you can use those names to narrow down your choice from among the thousands of available tartans.
Just don't, please, do what I once saw: a man dressed from head to ankle in Dress MacMillan tartan: kilt, waistcoat, jacket, plaid*, bonnet, tie and matching socks. The only things he was wearing that weren't Dress MacMillan were his shirt and shoes; in my opinion that was, to put it mildly, overdoing it.
*For the benefit of anyone who thinks that the word 'plaid' means 'checked (or even chequered) cloth': in Scotland, it doesn't. The cloth is called tartan. A plaid is a garment made of tartan. It can be either a huge voluminous affair like a cloak, such as is worn by a piper in full regalia, or a much smaller garment, like a short cloak, worn over a jacket.
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Well said, everybody who has tried to explain the truth about tartans. It's a sensitive issue, and many people from the Scottish "diaspora" in North America and the Antipodes are disappointed to learn that native Scots don't take the tartan thing as seriously as they do themselves. In New Zealand they have a weird ceremony called the Kirkin' o' the Tartan which doesn't correspond to anything that has ever happened in Scotland. The powers-that-be in Scotland, e.g. tourist boards and celebrities, bear a lot of responsibility for hyping up the whole tartan, kilts and whisky thing as Scotland's "brand".
If it's any consolation, individuals and organisations are perfectly free to design their own distinctive tartan and have it "approved". Believe it or not, there is a Singh tartan now which was designed by a prominent Scottish-Sikh family for their own use. My English mother-in-law had Scottish ancestors called Rollo and is intensely proud of her Rollo tartan skirt. There's nothing wrong in enjoying wearing tartan clothes as long as you don't imagine that they are the sort of garments your Lowland ancestors would have worn.
I once had my work cut out persuading a Canadian attorney, whose Davidson ancestors were fishermen in my home village in east Fife, that his Davidsons had nothing to do with the so-called Clan Davidson in Inverness-shire who were involved in the last clan battle in Scotland. He knew all about Highland history but hadn't a clue about the reality of life in the Lowlands and the fact that different unrelated families all over Scotland might bear the same surname.
Harry (in Lowland non-tartan-wearing Edinburgh)
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" Believe it or not, there is a Singh tartan now which was designed by a prominent Scottish-Sikh family for their own use."
The earliest tartan known is circa 3,000 years old. It was found in archiological excavations in Northern Tibet/ Mongolia. I posted this link already, but the post in which it was posted was removed by one of the mods.
http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan
Regards
Malky
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The earliest tartan known is circa 3,000 years old.
True; but none of the current setts dates back to before the 18th century, apart from the 'Culloden' tartan, which was, I understand, dug up on the battlefield after being bleached by the bog for a couple of centuries.
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" Believe it or not, there is a Singh tartan now which was designed by a prominent Scottish-Sikh family for their own use."
The earliest tartan known is circa 3,000 years old. It was found in archiological excavations in Northern Tibet/ Mongolia. I posted this link already, but the post in which it was posted was removed by one of the mods.
http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan
Regards
Malky
Maybe it was commissioned by Genghis Mac Khan ;D
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" Believe it or not, there is a Singh tartan now which was designed by a prominent Scottish-Sikh family for their own use."
The earliest tartan known is circa 3,000 years old. It was found in archiological excavations in Northern Tibet/ Mongolia. I posted this link already, but the post in which it was posted was removed by one of the mods.
http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan
Regards
Malky
Maybe it was commissioned by Genghis Mac Khan ;D
Excellent! ;D
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The powers-that-be in Scotland, e.g. tourist boards and celebrities, bear a lot of responsibility for hyping up the whole tartan, kilts and whisky thing as Scotland's "brand".
Not sure about tourist boards. The one I knew rather well was often inclined to underplay tartan, bagpipes and so on. That was a much earlier incarnation of today's one
Blame Sir Walter Scott for romanticising the Highlands in his work, especially his poems, and for orchestrating the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since theunion of the crowns in 1603. This was the visit of King George IV in 1822, when the king was decked out in a kilt, though I gather he insisted on wearing pink tights underneath to preserve his modesty.
Blame Sir Harry Lauder, who probably did more damage than anyone before or since to the image of Scotland and the Scots.
Blame the writers and performers of all the banal schmaltzy songs redolent of soggy nostalgia for' Granny's Hielan' Hame', the' Lights of Lochindaal', 'Lovely Loch Maree', the 'Waters of Kylesku' and so on.
I'd better retreat below the parapet now ;)
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Hi,
I'm a Shanks, Not from Linlithgow but from the neighbouring county of North Lanarkshire.
We use the Mackenzie Tartan. This was according to my grandfather who had a book on the subject.
-John
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We use the Mackenzie Tartan. This was according to my grandfather who had a book on the subject.
Maybe your grandfather had the wool pulled over his eyes by the Brigadoon industry :) Books about tartan are like family trees on Ancestry - interesting but not to be relied on as authoritative!
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And to add to the confusion there is a web site
https://www.houseofnames.com/wiki/boernicians
That puts the SHANKS family as Boernician
So confusing!
I'm so glad my SHANKS was from Ireland!!!
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And to add to the confusion there is a web site
https://www.houseofnames.com/wiki/boernicians
That puts the SHANKS family as Boernician
Hmm. That's bit like Ancestry too. A mix of fact, fantasy and wishful thinking, well larded with ****!
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Sorry to invade the thread,
Forfarian,
What's wrong with this.....
'Granny's Hielan' Hame'
That song was about my "Grannie's" crofthouse!!!
Well, so I thought, as a child :-[ ::)
One of my Dad's favourites which we had played at his funeral, along with the tune of The Dark Island by a Piper & it was a beautiful send off.
Annie
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Sorry to invade the thread,
Forfarian,
What's wrong with this.....
'Granny's Hielan' Hame'
It's just one of the so-called traditional (or possibly not) Scottish songs in slow waltz time or similar which I detest because to me they are just dripping with schmaltz and soggy with nostalgia (to borrow a phrase from the great Tom Lehrer).
Having got so far off topic I'll go and get my coat ....
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The vast majority of Scots have never had a granny with a Hielan' Hame ;D
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The song brought back some great memories of my father. He was a singer and loved this type of music. Although its not for me I can still appreciate the sound and also the words.
Any music is good music.
Another Annie :)
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Hi all,
I have been studying Midlothian for the past 10 years and came across this relating to SHANK, the first picture shows the land they had and the second one how the dwelling would have looked like, sadly this dwelling was taken down before the Reformation 1560, and the newer house was built by either the Duke of Argyll or the Earl of Bute. The person who owned it was a Nichol Elphinstoun and eventually it was purchased by the famous " Bloody " McKenzie who tried the Covananters and had them executed.
The original was in fact a proper Castle.
Archie.
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Dear Forfarian,
I am curious as to the nature of your expert credentials, and would be grateful if you could enlighten us by presenting your sources as well as why your information should hold truth above others.