Wedding in Scotland

In 1995 while I was working for the US Navy in England one of my employees was returning to Scotland to get married. I took a three day weekend to drive up for the wedding.

The wedding was in Dunoon and I only had a few hours to look around. Much to my surprise I was in McEwan country. I am a McEwen.

I purchased a couple of kilts (forgot the clans they belong to) then found three ties with one of the McEwan tartans. I bought them for my brother, Christopher McEwen, my son and my nephew. The ties came with a tag with a brief description of the McEwans and their association with the otter. Unfortunately, none of the recipients of those ties bothered to read the tag. That's sad because Chris loves otters.

Recently, my sister (Cathleen McEwen) and brother in law took a brief trip to Kilfinan which reminded me of the beautiful wedding I had attended and the reception after wards.

The bride's father-in-law was curious about me, so started a conversation. I mentioned that my given name was really Mary Connell McEwen at which point he became very excited and ran around the room telling everyone there was clan from America there. The he told me Mary McEwan from Dunoon had just left and the Connells were at the next table. At that point he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "They're Irish, you know". Of course I know that. Katie O'Connell was my great grandmother. As well as being Scottish, I'm Irish too.