Meeting the Clan Chief of MacL

The clan name is removed to protect privacy, however family members know who I mean.

Tonight I met the Clan Chief of MacL, or Rory. Happily he was very down to earth, dressed in brown shorts, employed by the Scottish Government to do with legal stuff around renewable energy projects (mostly). He has two older sisters, and two daughters. The eldest is the heir, and at nine, is only just cottoning onto the difference it might make to her life. 

His father was the genealogist who tracked down the evidence to become Clan Chief. He was always working on it, writing letters, receiving letters, visiting cemeteries - putting powder on the flat ones and then brushing it away to reveal the lettering. After dropping kids somewhere he would go to nearby library. His archive of material is in a bothy near D.

Rory has had his DNA done, Y confirms he is a MacL, thankfully. They did a whole lot of testing at a 700 year anniversary of Bannockburn about 2014, without really thinking about the potential consequences. He says he got lots of material but it meant nothing. He thinks he might have done autosomal with FamilyTreeDNA and not Ancestry, but would be willing to do it. 

Talked a bit about likelihood of matching at 4th cousins which is 50%. 

He likes outdoorsy stuff, hiking, endurance cycling (like last weekend cycling up 4,800m mountain). He grew up at D, two doors down from the D Inn (which I saw), later moving to Inverness, uni at Aberdeen and a bit longer, before moving to F. This small village, which we drive through is full of doctors! It had a great playground and sports fields, and only about 10kids per class, so the girls really love it. Most of his friends are doctors (also chaos in the system in Inverness, taking the overflow from Aberdeen).

Being clan Chief is not too onerous. When he first became chief aged 12, there were a few events etc but he still went to school. His mother died aged 16, while he was away at boarding school. His older sisters held the fort but soon they were all living independent lives. I forgot to ask if either sister had children. Aged 18 he came to a clan gathering in Australia, for 6 weeks which was so full of places and people it was overwhelming. Some of the organisers can be obsessive. He might have a few zoom meetings a year, and a gathering every few years. The next is in 2028 again in Strathpeffer. The organisers around the world do much of the work, Jillian not always so keen.

He has met the odd clan Chief, sometimes just in his day job, like Chief of clan MacD (likes), or clan MacLe (who was a bit aloof and would only wear a kilt if they paid him enough). Rory likes kilts. 

His father worked in Loanhead, Midlothian as a PE teacher, and set up highland dancing clubs etc. he was very well regarded in the community for this work. His grandfather had told him the stories of being related to the chiefly line, and fairly young he got the bug. His wife’s surname was also MacL, but that line is not related.

Anne Fraser was a typist for his father, and so was very well known to him since he was a boy. She knows everything about the D area. See post on visiting the archives.

They have chickens, guinea pigs and goldfish, wife is vegetarian after growing up on a farm. Loves his weather station. Holidays in Majorca, kids like the beach.

He gives talks on Jacobites to kid’s school. Sometimes doesn’t know answers to their questions. 

Showed him the picture of Culloden Moor cottage. Told story that of eleven children of our shared x3 great grandparents, 4 went to Australia where 3 sisters all lived in same small rural community.  Seven stayed home, 2 sisters married late and had no children, Winny is his x2 great grandmother (mine is his sister Margaret), a brother married without children, a sister died young, and a sister’s fate is unknown, and a brother Murdo had a family to follow him.

He wants to send the descendancy chart to Bruce MacL in Australia who is the clan genealogist.