ceud mile failte€¦ · volume ix spring 2015 newsletter of the macfie clan society of america...
TRANSCRIPT
1
District 1 Eastern Time Zone Mr. Welbourne “Cliff “McDuffie 6130 17th St. Zephyrhills, FL 33542 813 782 0877 [email protected] District 2, Central Time Zone Mr. Jarrod Fay 6417 Ems Rd. W Ft. Worth, TX 76116 (817) 313-9687. [email protected] District 3, Mountain Time Zone Ms. Amy Fee 2667 W. Avenida Azahar Tucson, AZ 85745 520-622-7630 [email protected] District 4, Pacific Time Zone Dr. Paula Macfie 11840 NE Knott St. Portland, OR 97220 [email protected]
Macfie Society of America Web
Site:www.clanmacfieofamerica.com
Society Officers
Volume IX Spring 2015 Newsletter of the Macfie Clan Society of America
District Coordinators
President:
Dr. Jim McAfee, FSA Scot 420 Ash Dr. Baxter, TN 38544 931-516-3207 [email protected]
Vice President
Ms. Amy Fee 2667 W. Avenida Azahar Tucson, AZ 85745 520-622-7630
Secretary
Vacant
Treasurer
Ginger McAfee 420 Ash Dr, Baxter, TN 38544 931-325-9150 [email protected]
Membership
Diane Swenson 299 Wattaquadock Hill Rd. Bolton, MA 01740 [email protected].
Newsbeat Editor
Ginger McAfee 420 Ash Dr. Baxter, TN 38544 [email protected]
Clan Commander-Ceann Cath
Iain McFie Coulintyre, Kincraig Kingussie PH21 1LX
International Clan Website: www.clanmacfie.co.uk/org
Ceud Mile Failte (One hundred thousand
welcomes)
To our newest Society members
Ms. Donna Morales. Corona CA Mr. Bill Howe, Winnemucca, NV
Michael Wayne McDuffie, Fairhope, AL
Mr. & Mrs. Johnny Gambill, Broken Arrow, OK
Michael Gambill, Broken Arrow, OK
The Newsbeat is published three time a year, Spring-Summer and Fall/Winter If you have any news, pictures, stories, poems, Games re-ports, or genealogy queries, please send them to Ginger (at the address to the left, preferably e-mail) for in-clusion in the next issue. We love to hear from you and the membership wants to know what is happening with other members.
It is almost time to pay the Piper, annual dues are due June 1, 2015
2
Macfie Merchandise for Sale
2
Kilt Pin-$15.00 Badges $12.00
Pro Rege T-shirts green-$12.00 Black T-shirts-$17.00
Minimal postage will be added to each order. Send order and payment to:
Ginger McAfee 420 Ash Dr.
Baxter, TN 38544
Dues Schedules
Dues are due each June.
Family $25.00 Individual $15.00
Individual (over 65) $7.00 Associate $10.00
One time: Sponsorship $500.00
Life Membership (over 65) $200.00
Send Dues to
Diane Swenson 299 Wattaquadock Hill Rd
Bolton, MA 01740
Annual dues will be due again on June 1, (unless you have joined within the past 6 months or so, in that case your dues will become due until the year following. Please check your membership card to see when you need to renew. Thanks to all those who faithfully renew their membership each year, your dues helps us to print and mail out this newsletter, it also helps us to maintain our web site and have a presence at many of the larger games in the county and be a presence to meet and get to know other Macfies around the country. We encourage you to attend as many Scottish Games as possible, and if you would like to convene, the society will pay half of the games fee. We will also provide a banner, and some items for the table, just contact Ginger at [email protected]
The Macfie Society of America is a Member of
The Council of Scottish Clans
Association Inc.
Games Reports and some upcoming Games where you are likely to find a Macfie Clan Tent
March 21-22, Arizona Scottish Games, Steele Indian School Park, 300 E.
Indian School Rd, Phoenix. www.arizonascots.com/05games.shtml
May 15-17 Smoky Mountain Scottish Festival & Games at Maryville College –www.smokymountaingames.org
June 13-14 Blairsville Scottish festival & Highland Games – www.blairsvillescottishfestival.org
July 9-12 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, Inc. – www.gmhg.org
If YOU would like to convene Scottish Highland Games in your ar-ea, please contact Ginger at [email protected] for information.
Flowers of the Forest We were very sad to hear of the passing of Society member, William George (Bill) McPhee, from Phoenix, AR, who passed away on June 22, 2014, at 81 years old. Bill was a veteran of the Korean war, serving his country in the Army. He and his wife, Nancy, attended the Gat-linburg TN International Clan Gathering in 2003. Bill suffered a severe fall while visiting family in MN and did not survive. Our sincere con-dolences go out to Nancy and the rest of the family.
Society member. Richard D. Diffee, age 72, of Cleveland, Tennessee, passed away Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014, in Chattanooga. Richard was born in Norfolk, Va., March 15, 1942, a son of the late Loyz and Anna-belle Jackson Diffee. He proudly served in the United States Navy; dur-ing the Vietnam War he served aboard the USS Intrepid off the Viet-namese coast. Richard retired after a civilian life as a police officer. Richard was a proud member of the Blue Knights Motorcycle Club and the Macfie Clan Society of America.. He is survived by his wife, Gladys Diffee.
Genealogy Queries
We are looking for information about George Neal (Neil) McDuffee who was born in North Carolina in 1788. At some point he moved to middle Tennessee and my husband would be his great, great, great grandson. We think he had a brother (John McDuffy or McDuffie) who stayed in North Carolina. We were hoping you might know where we can find more information. We would love to know when and how the family came to the United States. If you have any information contact: Carlette Jackson Hardin, e-mail: Ed.D. [email protected] 931-221-7511
3
My two week tour of Scotland 2014
By Donna Morales
I was lucky and took a wonderful tour of Scotland last summer. Arriving in Glasgow we crossed the Trossach forest to Stirling Castle where we toured the Castle and saw, on the other side of the valley, the William Wallace Monument. Continuing the drive to Edinburgh. We visited both the Holyrood Ru-ins and Palace. High on the hill was a guided tour of Edinburgh Castle. Touring Abbotsford’s home of Sir Walter Scotts and going to Melrose Abbey will be on everyone’s highlight reel. The highlight of the day was the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo that night which is always a wonderful experience. Visiting St. Andrews Golf Course on the way to Inverness was a golfers dream. Near Inverness we spent time at the Culloden Visitor Center and toured the battlefield. Seeing Cawdor Castle, then touring the Gardens and Falcon display at Dunrobin Castle was an experience to remember. The boat ride on the Loch Ness was a nice end to the tour of Urquhart Castle. Heading north to John O Groats to the Orkney Isles we saw the Skara Brae Neolithic village, Thurso and Isle of Skye. Though the pouring rain we saw Flora McDonald gravesite, Glennfinnan and the lsle of Mull. After seeing it in several movies, Eilean Donan Castle was as beautiful as you would expect it to be. Another highlight was seeing Iona Cathedral where St. Columba preached and brought Christianity to Scotland. On the Isle of Mull we toured the Duart Castle. The current Laird of the McCleans, Sir Fitzroy Donald McClean was there and we all go to meet and speak with him. My family name is McGuffin and as part of the Macfie clan I was fortunate to meet the Clan Com-mander Iain Morris McFee in Inverness. I had a wonderful and insightful afternoon taking to him as we walked around Inverness. Since I had traveled from LA to meet him I was prepared and brought a LA Dodger Hat and Tee Shirt for him. In return he had brought me a book on the walking tours near Inverness which I will always treasure. Editor: Donna took lots of pictures on her trip you can con-contact her at [email protected] for more infor-mation or for a link to her picture site.
4
Scottish Superstitions
For as long as humans have been able to record aspects of their culture, superstition has been prevalent and accepted among the people of Scotland. Class has not affected su-perstition in Scotland. For centuries, the rich and the poor alike have believed in the same superstitions. Some superstitions in Scotland are specific to a region, while others stretch from the border of England all the way up to the coast of Caithness and the is-lands in the north.
Scottish superstitions about objects are still very prominent today. They have spread and morphed and snuck their way into other cultures and changed as the people have changed. Even though people today do not neces-sarily believe in these superstitions, they are still practiced out of tradition. Traditions that we have today can be traced back to superstitions in Scotland, some of which go back thousands of years. These object superstitions have influenced modern Scottish culture and nestled their way into customs and traditions in other places around the world as well. There are also many aspects of culture today that are similar to old superstitions.
It is normal for superstitions to be about common household objects, since these objects were easily available to the people of Scotland. When handing scissors or a knife to somebody else, you must hand them holding the blade yourself, otherwise you may cut the friendship between you and the person that you are handing the scis-sors to. If you drop a pair of scissors, it is bad luck to pick them up yourself— you must have somebody else pick them up for you. If you receive a gift that is sharp, such as scissors, you must give the person who gave you the gift a silver coin in return. This is because it is believed that the sharp, gifted object could sever the friend-ship between the two people. The coin functions almost like you are “paying” for a part of your gift, and there-fore it will not cut your friendship.
In Scottish superstition, it is terrible to open an umbrella (brolly) inside someone’s home because this will bring bad luck to the family who lives there. This superstition dates back to ancient Egypt,
In the New Year, Scottish people “first-foot” one another, which means to be the first into somebody else’s home. The first-footer must bring a gift into the home to bring good fortune for the coming year. It is even lucki-er if the person bringing the gift has dark hair instead of fair hair. This most likely developed because of the fair-haired Vikings invasion of Scotland in the 8th century (therefore, a fair-haired person would bring you bad luck in a first-footing). When first-footing, if you gift a lump of coal, the home will be warm for the whole year.
Today, we are very familiar with the tooth fairy who leaves us money under our pillows in exchange for our teeth. Usually, the tooth is put in a small container hidden under the pillow. This highly resembles an old Scot-tish superstition about lost teeth that is supposed to bring a child good luck and strong teeth. The first tooth that a child lost was to be carefully rolled up in a sheet of paper lined with salt and hidden in a hole made by a mouse. This specific superstition is not carried out today, but there is no doubt that it inspired some of the spe-cifics about the tooth fairy!
Until fairly recently, childbirth was a perilous ordeal for women, and therefore a minefield of superstitions. Some thought that rocking an empty cradle would bring bad luck and possible death to the baby.
A howdie, an archaic Scottish term for a “handy woman”, is a midwife and the person who looks out for the soon-to-be mother. She makes sure that certain rituals concerning superstition and pregnancy are carried out. Before the baby is born, the howdie unties all knots in the mother’s clothing and unlocks all the doors and win-dows in the house to ensure the birth has no complications. She turns over all the mirrors in the house so that the baby’s soul will not be captured by evil spirits and gives the mother a Rowan berry herb concoction.
(Continued next page)
5
(Scottish Superstitions, continued from last page)
The Rowan berries are from the sacred Rowan tree, and are therefore believed to provide protection against mischievous fairies and the Evil Eye. After the baby is born, the howdie pours whiskey into the baby’s mouth to protect the baby from these two predators. In addition to this, every woman who is present during the birth must take three spoonfuls of oatmeal in order to bring the baby strength and good luck.
Horseshoes have been considered lucky for hundreds of years. It was seen as lucky for a horseshoe to be in-volved in a wedding in some way. Horseshoes were carried open side up so that good luck could be caught. It was also common for a horseshoe to be sewn into the hem of the bride’s dress. Today in Scotland, it is ex-pected that a bride will receive silver-covered cardboard horseshoes from small children when she leaves the church.
In Weddings today, bridesmaids usually wear the same colored dresses. This stems out of a Scottish supersti-tion in which the bridesmaids were dressed up fancily. They were supposed to look as nice as the bride. This was supposed to confuse the fairies and evil spirits, and therefore the bridesmaids acted as decoys, protecting the bride from anything bad happening to her on her wedding day.
For a long time it has said to bring good luck to the marriage if the bride puts a silver coin in her shoe during the wedding procession. The saying went, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe.” Today, the rhyme has made its way into many cultures, but without the ending words about the silver coin. In England and Scotland, brides still make sure to have a silver coin in their shoes. The tradition has taken hold in Sweden as well, where a bride has a gold coin in her right shoe and a silver coin in her left shoe for good luck.
Some addition Scots superstitions are:
It is unlucky to:
Have a black cat in any room where a wake is taking place.
Lay a baby down for its first sleep in a new cot.
See a funeral procession on the way to your wedding.
See a pig on the way to your wedding.
Cut a young babies’ nails with scissors as it will make them dishonest in later life.
Cross two knifes on a table.
Be first-footed by a flat-footed or a fair-headed person
It is Good Luck to:
Have a rowan tree outside your house as it helps keep witches away.
Place silver in a new born baby’s hand as it will bring great wealth to them in later life.
Touch iron if you see or even hear evil.
Wear a sprig of white heather.
These are just a few of the Scottish superstitions that have survived in some way. Finding out about old su-perstitions is fascinating because it reveals the mindset of the people of the time and helps us to better under-stand their way of life. Superstitions are such a huge part of history— and life today.
6
Taken from the “Corncrake”, Newsletter of Colonsay
STORMS: Fortunately, there is nothing much to say. Despite the appalling conditions elsewhere, Colonsay was fairly fortunate – there was very little damage. The wind did not often gust much over 70 knots, and for most people the damage caused by lightning was the worst, with wide-spread damage to telephone and broadband ser-vices. It was the longest unbroken spell of high winds for over twenty years, about ten days in all, making it very hard to move around and for
many people it was difficult to sleep at night. Ferry and air services held up very well, with the majority in operation but causing unavoidable loss and inconvenience to some unfortunate travelers. There was no snow or ice to speak of, but plenty of hail and a great deal of rain – the Dèabhaidh was impassable for three or four days. Our picture shows a steady wind in excess of 40 knots blowing straight into Kiloran Bay on 31 January, a very unusual direction; the photographer was on top of Beinn Bheag and at that height the wind was much stronger, making it impossible to stand up.
Festival of Spring; April 27th to May 17th 2015 For the fifth successive year the island will open its shores to welcome in the lighter & brighter days of the year with its three week Festival of Spring. There will be the usual eclectic mix of nature, art, foraging, craft, heritage and baking events, with rspb guided walks, textile workshops, bread making, island history lectures & local music, to name but a few. New topics for this year include ‘the Vikings on Oronsay’, Basket Making & Drystone Walling. With over 60 individual events planned and with an array of different experts & contribu-tors, 2015 promises to be another great event. The full 3 week programme can be viewed at www.colonsayevents.co.uk
The restoration of the Scalasaig mi-nor light is making good progress and we expect the completed light chamber to be returned to the is-land in March 2015. The Trust plan to re-erect the light as a feature in Scalasaig with information panels giving some background history to the light which was originally erected in 1903 by David A Steven-son. We also plan to create a
“lighthouse trail” with directions to the optic which is a central feature in the walled garden at Colonsay House and originally came from the Rubh a’Mhail lighthouse on the sound of Islay. The other lighthouse to feature which is visible from the Heritage centre at Port Mor is Dubh Artach some 16 miles west of Colonsay.
7
Welbourne Cliff McDuffie has a new book that is on the market now. Cliff noted: “This one is also registered in the Library of Congress. It’s “The Welbourne Papers” and has about every-thing I have written since about 1995 that I kept in my comput-er. Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and ebooks
Cliff also had two placements with his photos at the Pasco County Fair, Dade City Florida, Feb 16- 22, 2015 He went home with a second place and an honorable mention.
Casual Kilts in the Macfie tartan are availa-
ble in Poly Viscose material (65%/35%) which is an 11-12 oz, machine washa-ble fabric for about $99.00. http://www.usakilts.com/casual-kilt.html
Ilah and Pam Merriman took A cruise last October from Boston, along the New England coast and into the St. Lawrence River The photo of Pam in Boston in the old cemetery downtown. Ilah said they had a great time and the weather was not too cold. They ended their trip in Montreal and saw the changing leaves. Ilah is currently in Hawaii and Pam will be joining her soon.
We would LOVE to hear your news, please send it along with any pictures for inclusion in the next Newsbeat.
Macfie t-shirts; black with white lettering. The shirts are $17.00 each with $3.00 postage (in the US). If you would like to order one, send a check made out to Macfie Clan Society of AM, to Jim McAfee, 420 Ash Dr. Baxter, TN 38544
8
The Macfie Clan Society of America Dr. Jim McAfee, President 420 Ash Dr. Baxter,TN 38544
Sto
ry o
f W
illie M
urd
och a
nd t
he A
rab S
heik
Sheik
Abdul Am
unkir
was a
dm
itte
d t
o S
outh
am
p-
ton G
enera
l H
ospital fo
r heart
surg
ery
, but
pri
or
to
the s
urg
ery
, th
e d
octo
rs n
eeded t
o s
tore
his
type
of blo
od in c
ase t
he n
eed a
rose.
As t
he g
entlem
an
had a
rare
type o
f blo
od,
it c
ould
n't b
e found local-
ly,
so,
the c
all w
ent
out
for
help
.
Fin
ally a
Scots
man,
Willie M
urd
och w
as locate
d
who h
ad a
sim
ilar
blo
od t
ype.
The S
cot
willingly
donate
d h
is b
lood f
or
the A
rab.
Aft
er
the s
urg
ery
, Sheik
Abdul sent
Willie,
as a
p-
pre
cia
tion for
giv
ing h
is b
lood,
a n
ew
BM
W,
dia
-m
onds a
nd 1
0,0
00 U
S d
ollars
.
A few
days late
r, o
nce a
gain
, th
e A
rab h
ad t
o g
o
thro
ugh a
corr
ective s
urg
ery
. H
is d
octo
r te
le-
phoned t
he S
cots
man w
ho w
as m
ore
than h
appy
to d
onate
his
blo
od a
gain
. Aft
er
the s
econd s
ur-
gery
, th
e A
rab s
ent
the S
cots
man a
thank-y
ou
card
and a
box o
f Q
uality
Str
eet
chocola
tes.
Willie M
urd
och w
as s
hocked t
hat
the S
heik
did
not
recip
rocate
his
kin
d g
estu
re a
s h
e h
ad a
nticip
ate
d.
He p
honed t
he A
rab a
nd a
sked h
im,
'I t
hought
you
would
be g
enero
us a
gain
, th
at
you w
ould
giv
e m
e
a B
MW
, dia
monds a
nd s
om
e m
oney,
but
you o
nly
gave m
e a
thank-y
ou c
ard
and a
box o
f Q
uality
Str
eet.
'
To t
his
the A
rab r
eplied,
'Aye laddie
, but
I now
have S
cott
ish b
lood in m
a v
ein
s.'