Kilmon surname history derived from Kelman in Aberdeenshire

[Kilmon]

I am researching my surname, which is Kilmon.  I have some information that it is derived from the Pictish name "Kelman" form Aberdeenshire.  I am looking for the clan and tartan, and if they were Highlanders or Lowlanders.  Can anyone assist me?  My ancestors arrived in Appomax County, Virginia, USA from Scotland circa 1635. 

[Forfarian]

Welcome to RootsChat!

I am researching my surname, which is Kilmon.  I have some information that it is derived from the Pictish name "Kelman" form Aberdeenshire.  I am looking for the clan and tartan, and if they were Highlanders or Lowlanders.  Can anyone assist me?  My ancestors arrived in Appomax County, Virginia, USA from Scotland circa 1635.

According to G F Black's The Surnames of Scotland Kelman is of local origin from a place in Aberdeenshire, and he mentions Kelman Hill in the Cabrach.

It is not a Highland or Gaelic or clan surname.

Clans were a social feature of the Gaelic-speaking Highlands, and when your ancestors left Scotland they probably thought about clans, if they thought about them at all, as dangerous and uncivilised, and would have been shocked at the idea that they had anything to do with them.

The idea that every Scot belongs to a clan is an invention of the 19th and 20th century Brigadoon industry, as is the proliferation of 'clan' societies with Lowland surnames who were never historic clans.

Almost all tartans are also inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries, as is the idea that you are only entitled to wear a particular pattern if you are a member of the clan whose name has been applied to that pattern (called a sett).

There is no Clan Kelman and there is no Kelman tartan.
See https://www.clanchiefs.org.uk/
https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/index

[Kilmon]

What is Cabrach?

[Rena]

What is Cabrach?

"Cabrach is a civil parish in Aberdeenshire and Moray, Scotland. The name means "antler place" in Scottish Gaelic and expresses how the area was, at one time, the home of herds of red deer."

Below is the url of a website which describes the place in which your ancester was born and bred.   Enjoy:-

https://www.cabrachtrust.org/the-cabrach/

[Forfarian]

http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/nj3832

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.3805&lon=-3.0236&layers=6&b=1

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=57.3799&lon=-3.0319&layers=5&right=BingHyb

Historically the Cabrach is an ecclesiastical parish partly in Aberdeenshire but mostly in Banffshire. See https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/osa-vol7-Parish_record_for_Cabrach_in_the_county_of_Banff_in_volume_7_of_account_1/ and https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/nsa-vol13-Parish_record_for_Cabrach_in_the_county_of_Banff_in_volume_13_of_account_2/

[Ruskie]

Do you know the names and places of birth of your Scottish ancestors who arrived in Virginia?

Have a look at the area around Kelman Hill on google streetview. It looks amazing. 

Variations may mean different origins of surnames or changes in spellings and pronunciations over the centuries.

Scotlands People have some early church records which may be of interest.

PS. Welcome to rootschat. 

[Forfarian]

Scotlands People have some early church records which maybe of interest.

Unfortunately the earliest record in the parish of Cabrach is in 1711, much too late for you.

A few parishes do have some records earlier than 1635, but unless you know their given names and which parish they came from, you are not going to find them.