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FAQS
What is an honourable community?
This may seem a stupid question at this point, but.......were Thom(p)sons ever a clan?
Can MacTavish claim Thom(p)sons?
Question: Is it Thompson or Thomson?
Answer: Standardization of the spelling of surnames (orthography) came much later
than most people realize. Thomson and Thompson are the same name and it is only
from the mid-
Question: What is an honourable community?
Answer: In brief, an honourable community is a Scottish group recognized as such
by Lyon, sharing the same name, and behaving in a way similar to that of a clan that
descends from a common ancestor -
to be the stem arms of the family name, even
though no one bears them today, and anyone of the name seeking a grant will, in
normal circumstances, receive a differenced version of those stem arms.
Question: What is a clan?
Answer: The official word from Lyon Office is -
The clan
system is closely bound up with Scottish heraldry. The best definition of a clan
provided by a heraldic authority is contained in Nisbet's "System of Heraldry", published
in 1722: ‘A social group consisting of an aggregate of distinct erected families
actually descended, or accepting themselves as descendants of a common ancestor,
and which has been received by the Sovereign through its Supreme Officer of Honour,
the Lord Lyon, as an honourable