The same trite, I suppose, American THING: Roots. My great Grandfather was a Grant and I know the reality that back in the day anyone even remotely associated with a clan that came to the U.S. would take a Name and or a story of association that may or may not have truly existed. Being from the South, I doubt that the name was co-opted from our own famous Grant, (US)from our Civil War period. The story I got was that my GreatX3? Grandfather was part of Olgalthorp’s Debtor Colonists in Georgia, (Ah how the pride does swell), and when that whole experiment failed around 1752 everyone just sort of wound up fending for themselves as we poor of the world always seem to manage by luck or larceny. In their case it was distilling and a sort of rural racketeering. In any case my Great-Great Grandmother was full-blood Cherokee, (or Ojibwa as they called themselves, and my Great Grandfather who had never had a light bulb in his home somehow managed to be an electrician at a cotton mill in Porterdale GA. He married my Great Grandmother when he was 16 and she was 13, (mother died in childbirth, father unknown, burden on the mean aunt who supported her. Maiden Name: Tuggle a branch of the family that seems to have proliferated in Georgia though I’ve never been aquainted with any of them) they lived in company housing, dirt floor, company store, owning nothing until their older son was killed in WW2 and they got a check with which they bought 42 acres, milled and built their own home, (which still stands solid today) planted their own apple and peach orchards, farmed the rocky ground and made a quite civilized life on a farm where I spent my summers as a child, taught to value simple existence and independence. They always assered that we were Scottish although I am absolutely certain that over the years that must be well tempered with a variety irish/English/etc. So with all that impeccable pedigree I would like to see how the distant cousins made out. I’ve done a bit of research on the country over there and the reality of it is not as quaint as my juvenile imaginings would have it but I still want to go. My middle name is Grant and I have done some research on that particular clan, even have a pic of the coat of arms and a replica of a 16th century Claymore. So yeah…all that being as goofy and childish as it is, I still want to go. “Stand Fast, Craigellachie!”