Highland Games and Festivals

[Barbara]

Welcome Michael, so happy you've found your home!  There's a great bunch of people here and you're going to fit right in I can tell.    Our MacTavish in Scotland has been a tremendous help and cheering section for us getting up and running.  Tom and Mary are the glue that holds us all together.   

Barbara

[Mary]

Good to see you online, Barbara!  I know your back has been keeping you pretty immobile - so I'm glad you can start on your 300 or so backlogged emails and do some posting!

Mary

[Barbara]

Thanks Mary, didn't know I was so popular until I opened my email after a few days.     I am very blessed to have my email family and friends.  A lot of cousins ( 4th, 5th and 6th) I didn't know about until I started researching my family. It's amazing to compare photos and see how many look like my grandfather, my grt. aunts and uncles and my first cousins.

Ok, back to work. 

Barbara

[Stirling Thompson]

Welcome Michael, Amber, lowell190, r.jay, Deigan and anyone else who has joined the clan in recent weeks! Speak up! Don't be shy! Let your voices be heard! We get a little rowdy at times but we're harmless and generally real nice folks! Welcome aboard and let the fun begin!

[Michael Thompson]

HELLO MICHAEL, PLEASED TO MEET YOU AND WELCOME..............A LOWLY MACTAVISH WHO LIVES ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE POND........

I've seen your name on the board plenty of times now, and you seem to be quite the favorite around here. So tell me, how did a proud MacTavish get mixed up with all these Thompsons anyway?

Michael

[Michael Thompson]

Welcome to the family, Michael and kin!

This is Mary - the other half of Tom. He came home so excited about the wonderful reception at the games and all the Thompsons who came to the tent! He told me about meeting and talking with you and your family and about your great music (and donation!) You weren't the only one the Clan Campbell sent our way! Tom and Booner went over on Sunday and thanked them! They explained that we aren't saying all Thom(p)sons are Clan Thompson any more than they are MacTavish, Campbell or McIntosh or Fraser! There are reasons of locale for those clans to have had some Thom(p)sons with them and we would expect the Argyll Thom(p)sons to go with Campbell. It made perfect sense to them too!

Defintely makes sense to me Mary, and I understand a lot more about all the interactions after listening to Tom and reading some of the material on the clan web site. I'm definitely going back for some more on that.

Tom must have worn himself out ....he's down with a sore throat and terrible congestion and spent the day in bed today! I'll give him another day or so and then he'll simply have to revive and post!

I don't doubt he wore himself out. You should have seen him just talking to all those people and explaining about the clan and our connections and getting them to sign the petition to the Lord Lyon and all. I wouldn't be surprised if he spent days in bed.

Harold, Patsy and Tom all raved about how beautiful the location was and about the elk sleeping in the yard at the hotel. I think if Tom could take his log cabin with him, he'd be heading to Colorado tomorrow. Unfortunately (?), TN is a little cheaper for us retired folk........ we'll just have to save our pennies for trips to CO!

Well, we do believe that God may have created a lot of country, but he lives in Colorado. The elk are just beginning to get ready for the rut, and I've heard stories that the bugling is starting up in places. People come from all over to hear the elk bugle, and to see the Aspen trees change to red and gold and make the hillsides look like there are veins of fire among the dark evergreens. We don't have the dramatic fall colors of New England but our Aspen make up for a lot of that. And we're seeing the dusting of snow on the high peaks, some of which have only been snow-free for a month or two. Fall is pretty exciting in Colorado.

Did they tell you we are planning on having a tent at the Gathering 2009 if we can get enough people there??? Something to think about!

They did, and we're looking forward to it. Booner said we might do the Highlands Ranch Festival down in the Denver area too, which would be exciting. We helped out at the Welsh Society booth this year, as we also have Welsh relatives on my mother's side, but would love to meet more new Thompsons.

Again, to you and yours, WELCOME!

Thank you so much, and all the others who have made us so welcome. We are so grateful to Tom and Booner and everybody who has worked so hard to make this possible and we're more than excited about the future of Clan Thompson.

As Tom taught us during the clan recognition on Sunday:

The Reivers Ride Again!

Michael

[MACTAVISH]

I've seen your name on the board plenty of times now, and you seem to be quite the favorite around here. So tell me, how did a proud MacTavish get mixed up with all these Thompsons anyway?

Michael
[/quote]
I GOT MIXED UP WITH THESE REPROBATES AS A PRESBYTERIAN DUTY. YOURE ALL DESCENDED FROM CATTLE REIVERS AND REBELS, HARD DRINKERS, FAST WOMEN AND BLOODY MINDED FOLK THAT DID EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED THROUGH HISTORY AND SOD THE CONSEQUENCES! THE GROUP NEEDS A GENTLE POLITE EDUCATED MAN WITH A FINE PEDIGREE=GARTHBEG NOT DUNARDRY; THEYRE ALL AS*HOLES(SORRY IM SUPPOSED TO BE GENTEEL).
I THINK MY PARTICIPATION HAS BROUGHT INTELLECT/INSIGHT/CLASS/PURPOSE/HUMOUR AND GOOD LOOKS THE FACT THAT IM A LOOSE CANNON IS OVERLOOKED

[Mary]

STOP, STOP!!!  You're killing him!

MACTAVISH --- your answer to Michael made Tom laugh so hard.... and then he started into coughing and hacking.........NOW I think he's heading for the Dayquil and back to bed! Arghhhhh!

'Tis true, Michael.........MACTAVISH does indeed bring all those attributes to the table with him. But, if you haven't noticed, there are several loose cannons around here and if we singled MACTAVISH out for it, well.....he would just take it as another compliment and that would mean ANOTHER larger hat would be needed So we try to let them all run as freely as we can, overlooking it because they are (after all) Scottish!

And we are rather "purpose-driven" people who have found common cause in "so.....if the Thom(p)sons are the 6th largest name in Scotland, why don't we have a CLAN???"  Ahhhhh.....the sleepless nights THAT little, insightful question has caused around here!!!     Not to mention the anger and discontent it's engendered elsewhere

MACTAVISH keeps us on our quest when we tire.....a true friend.

Mary

[Michael Thompson]

THE GROUP NEEDS A GENTLE POLITE EDUCATED MAN WITH A FINE PEDIGREE=GARTHBEG NOT DUNARDRY; THEYRE ALL AS*HOLES(SORRY IM SUPPOSED TO BE GENTEEL).
I THINK MY PARTICIPATION HAS BROUGHT INTELLECT/INSIGHT/CLASS/PURPOSE/HUMOUR AND GOOD LOOKS THE FACT THAT IM A LOOSE CANNON IS OVERLOOKED

You definitely seem to bring an air of erudition to the group, or some sort of air at least. 

So who are these Garthbeg and Dunardry fellows anyway?

[Booner]

MACTAVISH,

you left out "humble"

Booner

[Mary]

Oh Boy, Michael........THAT question ......about Garthbeg and Dunardry......can open a can of worms that will never be closed!

Back in 'ought-something' (around the 1300s or 1400s) there supposedly were two brothers, sons of the head (chief?) of the MacTavish. During an argument, the younger killed the elder and was subsequently persona-non-grata at home (Dunardry), so he left with his followers and went to the Garthbeg farm at Stratherrick, Scotland and threw in their weight with the Frasers....although they always maintained their separate identity and name. So...the most direct line of MacTavish SHOULD be the Stratherrick (Garthbeg) and NOT Dunardry although the Dunardry line was granted the chiefship by Lyon in 1997. This is just the tip of the iceberg.......

Anyway.....those are the two branches of the MacTavish. OH.......and ONLY the Stratherrick group fought at Culloden. Steven MacTavish loves to have his creative history published everywhere and says how the MacTavish fought at Culloden and then changed their names to Thompson to avoid persecution......this is total hogwash. HIS MacTavish did NOT fight at Culloden, and since they didn't they had absolutely no reason to change their names (which they didn't). His pal Patrick has claimed this name change also - but we proved his claims bogus to Lord Lyon already.

[Booner]

Dam!
LAst night i "thought" i posted my report here regarding the Estes Park Games, but it's not here today??

I see Tom has posted his report so I won't re-do mine which pretty much copied his; I'll post my thoughts regarding the game tomorrow.

But I would be remiss if I didn't give my thanks publicly to Patsy, Herold and Tom for helping me & guiding me in making our first Estes Park game such a success. I'm deeply indebted to them.

Booner

[Michael Thompson]

Oh Boy, Michael........THAT question ......about Garthbeg and Dunardry......can open a can of worms that will never be closed!

Thanks for the clarification MacTavish, I'm starting to pick up on teh context a bit so I have at least some clue what's going on.

Cheers.

[MACTAVISH]

WELL MICHAEL, YOU SEEM TO HAVE GOT THE PULSE. IN A NUTSHELL; THE GARTHBEG MACTAVISH ARE THE LINEAL HEIRS TO THE CHIEFSHIP BUT THE CURRENT 'CHIEFS' FATHER STOLE AND DESTROYED DOCUMENTS AND APPLIED FALSELY FOR CHIEFSHIP. WE ARE CURRENTLY GOING THRU THE PROCESS WITH LYON AND ARE FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE. WE DEAL IN FACTS AND ACCEPT THAT THOMS ARE NOT OUR SEPT-BUT FOR A FEW TARBERT THOMS-, YOU WILL SEE THAT WE PROMOTE THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR OWN CLAN. YOU CAN GET A BETTER INSIGHT INTO THINGS IF YOU TYPE IN realmactavish.com -  ONE OF OUR SITES. IF YOU CLICK ON 'SEANACHIE' AND 'WHO IS OUR SEANACHIE' YOU'LL SEE ME AND MY RESUM'E.

WE FOUGHT AT CULLODEN- AND PAID THE COST.WE ARE ALL AROUND 6 FEET + AND BUILT LIKE WARRIORS.

 THE GARTHBEGS TRACE OUR ROOTS TO THAMHAIS- INTERRED IN KILMARTIN KIRKYARD AND GILISBEAG O'DUBHNE BEFORE THAT. THE OTHERS ARE CAMPBELLS FROM 1320 ONWARDS.

Edited by F.M.  --- MACTAVISH, you knew I wouldn't let you get away with some of this post!  I can't let you be THAT loose a canon!

[MACTAVISH]

F M ,is the inference that butter would indeed melt in my mouth?