Blair Tartan

[BrightonDCO]

Is it possible to tell which of the two major Blair families that I am from by the tartan that my father is wearing in the attachment?
I am attaching only one family member with the kilt on, as otherwise the photo is too big to send.    Any help is greatly appreciated. 

[macintosh]

The tartan your man is wearing has the look of the McKenzie tartan of the Seaforth Highlanders, the sporran with two tassels, that  also looks like a Seaforth Highlanders sporran.

The Blair Tartan does not have the larger square as light as the one in the picture.
 Unless someone corrects me I don't know of a Scottish Regiment that wore or wears the Blair tartan.

There is a Blair Atholl or Braemar tartan which is decribed as a fashion tartan with a lager white square, but not military.

Blair Atholl is the home of the Atholl Highlanders but they wear the Murray of Atholl tartan and they are purely a personal bodyguard.

Blair clan motto: Amo Probis "I love the Virtuous"

Regards

James

[GR2]

You have to remember that tartans, in the modern sense, are a mainly 19th century development. Many people just picked a tartant they liked. There were no very strictly adhered to "rules".

However, the main point here is that the kilt worn in the photograph is part of a military uniform (I'm sure some experts, perhaps on the site's army board could tell you more). That means the tartan is not that of the individual, but the unit's one.

[macintosh]

Forgot to mention - If you post on Armed Forces board as suggested by GR2, include any details of his name date of birth and any other info you have, does he have any medals? as this is a ww1 pic if he has medals his details will be etched or engraved on them.


James

[BrightonDCO]

Thanks kindly for the hints regarding the tartan.  My Dad's family are from Mount Florida but none of the family that I know served in the Seaforth Highlanders but I will have a good look for that information.  Thank you again and I will post on the Armed Forces site to see if anyone can help.

[macintosh]

An additional comment, He is potentially a Gordon Highlander as he is potentially a Seaforth Highlander. I had an uncle from Anderston in Glasgow who was a Seaforth Highlander, it made little diference as to location a person was recruited from or conscripted from.


James

[WillieBlair]

I can't tell what year your question was raised, only the month. I can, however, assure you that the young man in the photo is not wearing a Blair tartan. Other responders correctly state that this is a military uniform tartan, not a clan or family tartan. There are over 430 distinct Blair ancestral lines according to the Blair Society for Genealogical Research. Blair of Blair (of that Ilk) and Blair of Balthayock are apparently separate lines, both dating to the late 12th or early 13th centuries. At that time (medieval) there was no such thing as tartan to identify families (at least so far as the best research can discern). One responder correctly states that the use of tartan as we know it today to identify a particular clan or family dates back to the first quarter of the 19th Century,

The Clan Blair Society, based in the United States, takes its logo from a melding of the badges of Blair of Blair and Blair of Balthayock, and welcomes anyone with the surname Blair as well as anyone having a Blair ancestor. Their website is clanblair.org. A partner organization, the Blair Society for Genealogical Research, is perhaps the most important source of genealogical records specifically related to the Blair surname.

[macintosh]

Welcome to Rootschat WillieBlair,

The question was raised by GR2  on August 18th 2012 As you are a Blair clan clan member I appreciate your agreement with my comments on the photograph

James