Yeah, it was on the list. The list of discovering the heritage. It’s the list many Americans make, many never get to. The places you will go, you fantasize about in the Uni years, never have the money to go. Then you have a chance, a slight chance that turns into reality. Next thing you know, you are actually on the plane.

Why do we have this drive to visit our heritage? Many people keep pouring into the US to call it home. Your ancestors certainly did. Why are we so fascinated with where we come from as people. I’m on the quarter system, so Irish/English/French/Scots. I recently did the DNA thang and found it was first hit Normans, second Vikings, the rest British Isles. It makes since when you think about migrator patterns for the years of the Vikings and Normans conquering about a thousand years back. I spent months trying to Mum’s family back to about 1812 and still couldn’t find when the main boat got hopped on that side. The Irish and the Scots kept inter-marrying with new blood coming by boat over about 160 years or so, but no particular main relative on that side. So after months of trying to track, I decided on sticking to the great grands and the name that kinda got a bit Mericanized.

Callum. McCallum, MacCallum. The name has stories on both the Irish and Scots side, with the history of the Irish pouring into Scotland and intermarrying and such, becomes a bit harder when you try to pinpoint a bit. The Clarks were definitely Scots on my Grans side, Jennet being my namesake. Wait, that spelling? Yeah, I think maybe a pronunciation in a brogue got that one changed up a bit. Perhaps it was Jeanette, since the Scots have a history with the French, or really Janet and the people at emigration or the registry office just didn’t get it. Who knows. I am seriously thinking I will get a name change back to this name this year since it got so lost.

So, last summer my declaration to finally get my erse to Scotland worked. When I got off the plan on return, I turned to my ride and said, I have to go back. I barely scratched the surface.