Monday, November 20, 2017

Being tolerant of people who are not McGregors


Years ago now I saw that my McGehee folks had a great story about our ancestor arriving in VA in the 1600s with a made up name Macayhaee or something like that, meaning child of the mist--made up because he was from the great Gregor clan and the name McGregor had been outlawed. Yeah, sure. Then came DNA, and the McGregors include Greer and other names that people took because they could not call themselves McGregors. Right there they include Grandpa. So the McGehees are high and mighty MaGregors. This week I found the Pottenger-Bowie-Magruder connection and saw that James Bowie is a cousin. Talk about cache in Texas! I can show my donation to Planned Parenthood and not get shot. The Magruders, it turns out, have been fixated a long time on their being McGregors. They deserve to be McGregors by generations of bravery, they do. But that damn DNA messes up tradition and wishful thinking. My great Magruder cousins are not McGregors. Well, at least they are cousin to someone who IS a McGregor. And a Renfrewshire Glenn, two different ways. And so much for my own high and mighty skepticism about family myths claiming kinship to the Gregor claim!

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