I am a Celt !!!!

[Macktheknife]

It seems we are legion then.....
I too can trace my ancestry back nearly a thousand years thru England, Scotland and Ireland, and on into (sadly) France.
My family have traced back as far as a minor noble in the invading army of William the Conqueror.
I am proud of my heritage and of being a norman/celt.
And I get really upset when some inbred savage tries to tell me that because I am a 'pakeha' I have no history. (actually happened) so I educated him vigourously.
Bring on the revolution!

[Motu]

From County Cork.....our name comes from the Normans,and there is enough Moor blood to give us a rouge Black Irish in every generation.On my mother's side her Irish father was a ''Mc'',but he married a non Catholic Mc from Scotland,causing much shame.

There was a tendancy to change religion to suit the times,but they were still always Catholic.In one such change our family name was found on Charles I's death warrant - his body was dug up and the bones scattered to the four points of the compass.Out of favour ever since.

[Damon]

The Shaw clan is derived from Shaw MacDuff, who was a younger son of the Thane of Fife. Shaw was made keeper of the royal castle of Inverness and his heirs became known as the 'Mhic an Toiseach' or the 'sons of the Thane'

The clan Shaw went on to become one of the principal septs of Clan Chattan. The second, and best known, chief of the clan was Shaw Macghillechrist Mhic Iain, who was commonly known as 'Sgorghiaclach', which translates as 'bucktooth'. He led the clan Chattan under the notorious Wolf of Badenoch, most notably on the legendary raid on Angus in 1391.

The Clan Chattan took part in a long standing feud with the neighbouring Cameron clan, which threatened the stability of the whole neighbourhood. It was decided to resolve this dispute with a trial by combat of champions. Shaw Bucktooth led the clan Chattan and over sixty Highlanders fought at Perth before an illustrious audience, which included the Dauphin of France.

Today the clan Shaw is recognised as a line of unbroken continuity to the ancient earls of Fife.

[avgas]

(sadly) France.
Bring on the revolution!

Ah yes, the french side of the tree. dont ya just hate that one of ya forfathers hooked up with some little french hottie
Geeze you guys have all flash celtic heritage like, apart from me french (10%) and german (40%) sides, rest of me tis only enslaved working class (50%).
But apparently before enslavement we were a bunch of angry MFr's.

[Babelfish]

I'm english...we hung your lot

[Mr Merde]

.......
My family have traced back as far as a minor noble in the invading army of William the Conqueror.
......

William the Conqueror, grandson of a "viking". Your family goes north of France if you go back another 100 years or so.

History is just a matter of looking. Records do exist and luckily those of persons comming from the conglomeration now know as Europe have records that go back thousands of years.

My surname is old celtic and means "Top of the Hill".
Young sister has traced the bloodline and it goes back to the ancient "kings" of Ireland, in the so called "dark ages". (doesnt everyones bloodline go back to someone powerful or famous.).

My ancestors were working metals, creating poetry, carving wood and stone, working precious metals and jewels, playing music, reading, writing, voting (Irish kings were elected), going to war, creating universities and exploring the world well over 700 years (that I know of) before these islands were discovered by the first settlers.

I wonder what would happen if when filling in any more official forms I tick the "other" box and then insert CELTIC.

[Mr Merde]

I'm english...we hung your lot

English.

A word deriving from the Engles, a people from the northern part of what is now known as Germany, as were the Saxons.

Be proud mate you have a touch of all the races in you. Roman, French, Viking, Engles, Saxon, etc.. etc...

England seems to be the place where most of Europe headed towards. There are even traces of the ancient Greeks in places like Cornwall where tin was mined.

[Lissa]

Ohhhh I'm in good company.

I can trace my family tree back to the year 942. An viking ancestor made his way over to England to become a companion (whatever that means, hopefully something non dodgy) to King Edgar "The Peaceable".

My ancestors were mostly canons, Knights of the Knightenguild, members of the Hospitallers.... or knights of the hospital of St John of Jersusalem (St Johns), one was an Admiral of a ship in the Battle of Trafalgar with Lord Nelson.. (has a book written about him).

I love my family tree.. and want to spend some time researching it a bit more.

[skelstar]

Orkney Islands on one side and Ireland via Scotland on the other I think. Fraser clan apparently.

[James Deuce]

(doesnt everyones bloodline go back to someone powerful or famous.).

Mine doesn't. Long may it stay that way. The lesser you are in social stature, the less likely your are to be chopped off at the knees. I rather suspect that most people are "ordinary" but that doesn't sit well with the desire to be "better" than you are.

You're only as good as you let yourself be.

[Jimmy B]

McLeod of the clan McLeod

McLeod's are descendants of King Olave the Black, a 12th century Viking warrior who went on a raping and piliging spreee across northern europe ending in what is now Scotland. His son Leod bore the first McLeod, hence the Mc in McLeod means son of Leod. Any scottish Mc or Mac are son's of (ie. McDonald are sons of Donald).

I descend from the highland McLeod's, the nasty one's who smoked the McDonald's to death in a cave way back when.

I too are CELT. Although born in kiwiville, I descend form a once proud and stoic clan from the highland's.

Long live the CELT's.

och ey ya big jessie!

Me too Blackadda, from Skye in fact. Apparently we used to make a fair living by way of piracey, inflicted on coastal trader vessels, sort of like a toll for using the waterway if you will. Family came here in 1860, because they were starvin, struck gold and spent a few years spending it

[Macktheknife]

William the Conqueror, grandson of a "viking". Your family goes north of France if you go back another 100 years or so.

Actually I think it is a bit further back than that but information is getting thin on the ground at this stage.

My ancestors were working metals, creating poetry, carving wood and stone, working precious metals and jewels, playing music, reading, writing, voting (Irish kings were elected), going to war, creating universities and exploring the world well over 700 years (that I know of) before these islands were discovered by the first settlers.
CELTIC.

Actually you might be interested to know that there is some evidence to suggest that there were 'Celt-like' people here in NZ in the 1st and 2nd century, about a thousand years before the Maori arrived. The Waitaha have stories of their arrival in about 250AD, and they refer to a short people with red/brown hair and paler skin whom they called the 'stoneworkers' or 'stonepeople'. There are many examples of stone dwellings around NZ that show these people did exist, there is also evidence to suggest that the 'Pa' or fortified hill design was already existing here and the Maori used it to their advantage.
Bloody interesting stuff history.

[Babelfish]

English.

A word deriving from the Engles, a people from the northern part of what is now known as Germany, as were the Saxons.

Be proud mate you have a touch of all the races in you. Roman, French, Viking, Engles, Saxon, etc.. etc...

England seems to be the place where most of Europe headed towards. There are even traces of the ancient Greeks in places like Cornwall where tin was mined.

Not quite the response I expected...damn, I guess I'll be serious then. My lineage contains allsorts - more recently scottish and welsh but further back scandinavian and saxon. The whole of Europe was one big orgy and melting pot of interatial shagging though...I dare say a few boys on crusade wouldnt have said no while on tour and likewise the Romans weren't shy in having an entourage of different breeds.

I'm proud of all of my history, but understanding the region, I am not more proud of one part than the other...otherwise I'd be too much like some of the minority wasters that we have to deal with in NZ

[Lias]

I'm a proud son of Clan Gall, a sept of Clan MacDonald. The general consensus is that Gall's are descended from a group of Gael picts who allied with the vikings.

After the evacuation of Britain by the Romans, the country north of the Firth of Forth was occupied by a Pictish people designated the Alban Gael, whom historians agree were of the same race as the Cruithne of Ireland, and whose language was a type of a modern Scottish Gaelic. This people probably came first to Scotland between 500 B.C. and 300 B.C. To the south, the Scots of Dalriada occupied part of Argyll, and the country of Mull, Islay and the Southern Isles. The Alban Gaels or Picts, north of the Forth, were divided into the Northern Picts, who held the country north of the Grampians, and the Southern Picts. When, in 844, the Dalriads, Scots and Southern Picts were united in one kingdom by Kenneth MacAlpin, the Northern Picts remained unaffected by the union. Included in the territory occupied by these Picts, or Alban Gael, were the Western Islands, know to the Gael as Innse-Gall, or the Island of the Strangers, which later formed part of the dominion of the Kings of the Isles, progenitors of the Clan Donald. In these early days the Islands were constantly ravaged by the Norsemen and the Danes, who kept the whole western seaboard in a state of perpetual turmoil.

When Harold, the Fair Haired, in the year 875, constituted himself King of the whole of Norway, many of the small independent jarls, or princes, of that country refused to acknowledge his authority, and came to the innse-Gall, or Western Isles. Harold pursued them, and conquered Man, the Hebrides, Shetlands, and Orkneys. The year following this conquest, the Isles rose in rebellion against Harold, who sent his cousin Ketil to restore order; but Ketil exceeded his instructions, and declared himself King of the Isles, being followed by a succession of Kings, until the Isles were finally added to Scotland. Allied with these Norse sea rovers was a Pictish people, called the Gall Gael, and Dr. Skene, the historian, claims that from the Gall Gael sprung the ancestors of the Clan Donald. The name Gall has always been applied by the Gael to strangers, and Skene maintains that the Western Gaels came, by association, to resemble their Norwegian allies in characteristics and mode of life, and thus acquired the descriptive name of Gall.

This quote sums it all up really doesnt it though?

For that is the mark of the Scots of all classes:
that he stands in an attitude towards the past
unthinkable to Englishmen, and remembers and
cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or
bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity
with the dead even to the twentieth generation.

[Mr Merde]

......

Bloody interesting stuff history.

Absolutely fascinating stuff.

The age old questions, where, who, why and how.

The answers are all there its just the finding of them that gets difficult.

I recently sat down with some Aunts and they had information about my ancestors that came to NZ. Their grandparents. It was a real eyeopener. I even had a great great great uncle who fought in the Russian Army in the 19th Cenbtury. Seeing photos of these people really brought all the family stories to life.