The Society’s genealogist, Tom MacLachlan, holds over 20,000 records of MacLachlan family history.The Britain & Ireland Branch of the Clan MacLachlan Society intends to revise the newsletter to include a wider variety of news and features for its members. The twice-yearly Clan Lachlan has run to 52 issues since 1979, going from a photocopied production by Duncan MacLachlan in Fort William, Scotland to step-up to an illustrated offset litho job under Chris MacLaughlin’s editorship in Northern Ireland. In that period the Clan Society had established branches in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and combined with others in the United States. As the distribution widened the content changed to reduce the “local” content; it was no longer the place for news about individual members and one reason for that was the established publications, pre-existing in the USA and newly-introduced in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, catered for that need. The newsletter produced by David McLaughlin in Orkney will be extended to fill the need and short articles about Mac/McLachlans and the septs of the Clan, MacEwan and Gilchrist, past and present. A sept or sect in the this case is a Clan that is without a traditional chief which has occurred when the property of a chief has been forfeited, through battle or bankruptcy, and without a base and respect he could not govern his people. The people would rely on the remaining leader of the district to adopt them. The need now is for news items about members, about other McLachlans and anything else of special interest which may duplicate David’s contributions but its better to have them twice than not at all. Another requirement is for someone who can layout the items that have passed through the editorial process. If you can help, please contact Tom McLachlan at sennachie@dsl.pipex.com Don’t let doubts about your use of grammar worry you, the Editor can deal with that in co-operation with you. The BBC2 series on past Wednesday evenings, the second series under the slogan Who do you think you are? is reminiscent of a Scottish music hall song which went Hoots mon, oot o’ ma way; who d’ya think ya are? If you have not seen one or more of the programs you have missed an experience that stirs the imagination and urges many to follow the examples of Jeremy Paxman, Jane ZXxczc or Fhshejh to visit the nearest archive centre where they can pick the scent of the ancestor trail by finding Grandfather’s birth certificate which should provide evidence of where and when he was born, who his parents were including the name of his mother before marriage and the occupation of great-grandfather that provide the cash to keep the family alive and well. Importantly, the producer’s of the series provided photographs of the period with the exteriors of the dwellings likely to have matched the income of the family of that time, the places of work. So much better are such TV programs in getting us to understand the history that is of the first importance to us. It may be a coincidence but the number of enquiries to the Society about ancestors is running at a record level at present. One asks about ancestors who established the Auchentoshan distillery at Dalmuir, to the northwest end of Glasgow, back towards the City centre on the north bank of the Clyde from the Erskine Bridge. Here the MacLachlan triple-distilled Lowland single malt was produced. Duncan MacLachlan has written of this and the story of Scottish whiskies in the last edition of Clan Lachlan. Another asks for assistance in finding the fate of the grandfather who went to the United States, eighty years ago, when the family broke up. There are the instances of men who went from Scotland, usually across the Atlantic, to establish themselves and earn the money that would bring the family to a new home but there was not always a happy reunion. There were instances of men becoming ill and dying from lack of assistance from friends or family in a strange country. For that reason they usually joined with another to travel or made prior contact with someone who had gone before. There were husbands who took the opportunity to leave their responsibilities in Scotland and the case in a Belfast family of the husband sending the money home for his wife and sons to join him and the wife declining to leave. At one time it was the landed families and the newly-rich who took an interest in their forebears, the first to maintain title to the property and rank accumulated over time and the second to emulate them, carefully avoiding irregularities and embellishing the virtues that their ancestors never knew they possessed. The spread of education beyond the breadwinning subjects has made family history an interest to many and the facilities have expanded in the past forty or so years to match the aspirations of many. Searches that would once occupy months are now reduced to days and much can be done from home at the cost of the travel previously necessary. The Clan Society encourages McLachlans to know their roots and will assist where necessary; however, this exercise is never so interesting unless you are a participant in the research.
