People sort themselves into social groups at various scales. At a granular scale we find the family, then branch out to our neighborhood or town, then our region, and finally our nation. These social groups share collective resources and common interests, and provide protection from competing groups or external elements. Personal identification with the group, and the ability to identify others as members, can sometimes be a matter of survival, but it can also be a source of pride.

Extended family

The Scottish clan system is a collection of extended family groups, taking surnames like MacDonald or Campbell. One doesn’t need to carry the same surname as a clan chief to pay fealty to him: a different surname associated with a clan name is known as a sept. Cromar, for example, is a sept of Clan Farquharson. Clans are a vestige of the tribalism that organized societies in the European Middle Ages in the absence of a centralized imperial authority like that of Rome. As in other European societies, the evolution of the modern nation-state in Scotland was a matter of tribe leaders competing to become the head of larger alliances among tribes.

This dynamic created a system of monarchy, and the nation under a given chief-of-chiefs—the king—would take as its identity the symbol of that chief. The Royal Banner of Scotland, for example, is derivative from the armorial bearing of King William I, a member of the House of Dunkeld. This is the essential link between two symbology systems: heraldry and vexillology.

Heraldry

Heraldry signified family groups in the Middle Ages. Vexillology, the study of flags, scales this grouping propensity to towns, counties (shires in Scotland), or nations. In between these scales, symbology relating to the Scottish clan system includes crest badges and tartans.

In family trees, it became common to see heraldry as “logos” representing family groups as they marry and bear offspring. Respecting that tradition, I developed a set of flat graphic vector-based icons in a square format to use in my family tree. These tended toward the following social groups.

Social group symbols

• Flags | From the USA (the newest national flag in my tree) to the Saltire of Scotland (the oldest flag in the world), I derived square formatted versions of flags using color definitions and other vexillological definitions largely found at Wikipedia. These are used in the era of the modern nation-state, from about the 16th Century BCE forward.
• Arms | To represent family groups or “houses” in a feudal state historical context, using the color scheme at Wappenwiki to standardize heraldic metals and tinctures. These are used from approximately the 11th to the 16th Centuries BCE.
• Others | To represent groups or tribes in a pre-heraldic era, I had to get a little creative. Some symbols, like a Roman icon, were not hard to synthesize. For others—Celts, Picts, Vikings, Carolingians, Merovians, and others—I had to develop a modern interpretive symbol based on iconography associated with these groups, because they had not yet developed a tradition of heraldry or vexillology.
• Clan | Because Cromar is a sept of Clan Farquharson, I only developed one clan badge. This I did not create as a flat graphic icon, but rather as a work of highly detailed vexel art. I also created one tartan sett for the clan, carefully manipulating an image of a fabric swatch into a seamless tiling image map.

Vexillological icons

Primary flags

Predominantly featured in my family tree:

A note on the display of the Confederate Battle Flag: It is an unfortunate reality that some of my ancestors were active participants in the propagation of the Confederate States of America, an unrecognized secessionist state from 1861-1865. This flag has been, and is still, used as a hate symbol. My display of it here does not intend to “celebrate the heritage” or “honor the heroes” or embody any other coded language in support of white supremacist ideology. On the contrary. I consider it a black mark on our family history that I repudiate. However, I do not have the power to revise history, and I therefore must reluctantly include it.

Secondary flags

Secondarily featured in my family tree:

Armorial icons

Heraldry of Scotland

Heraldry of England

Heraldry of France

Heraldry of Northern Europe

Heraldry of Southern and Eastern Europe

Other Symbols

British Isles and other conquering peoples

European and North American dynasties, empires and tribes

Crowns

Scottish Clan Symbols for Clan Farquharson

This artwork was developed using guidance from the Society of Scottish Armigers following rules set forth by the Court of the Lord Lyon.

Information about this tartan has been sourced from the Scottish Register of Tartans. One may find sett, thread count, and size information about a given tartan by creating an account. This official data differs from some other authorities, so there is some variation in pattern. This is essentially the tartan in my kilt with one minor difference: the black B4 adjacent to the pivot (R8 at right) appears to be B8 in a cloth woven by House of Edgar and tailored by Gordon Nicolson.

This particular colorway represents the Ancient tartan which, in contrast to the Modern tartan, is much brighter in tone. I prefer the ancient as it allow the sett to be seen in higher contrast.

Sett (pattern) for Farquharson Tartan

Dimension: 4.5 inches from pivot to pivot, 8.8333 inches for the full reflected sett.

Thread count given over a half sett with the full count at the pivot:

R4 B16 K4 B4 K4 B4 K32 G32 Y8 G32 K32 B32 K4 R8

Color definitions: