Several questions have arisen recently to which I believe our family deserves answers. One pertains to the tartan registration, another deals with the McBrayer plaque which is located at St. Michaels church in Dumfries, while the third is about the McBrayer family coat of arms. I will try to answer these in order followed by a letter provided by Madam Hillhouse and her husband, Charles McKerrell of Hillhouse. 1. THE TARTAN AND THE TARTAN FUND Beginning in the 1980s I was approached by a lady from California about having the McBrayer tartan registered and requested that I print an article and request for donations in In Defiance. Over a period of several issues I carried several articles and requests for donations. Several hundred dollars - if not a thousand or more - was raised by you - the family - for this purpose. All that money was forwarded to the lady in California, by whom I was told the monies were then sent to May Roberts (Madam Hillhouse). When May was in Oklahoma for a visit in August 2010 we were going through some of those back issues on ID when we came across those requests and stories. To say the least May was quite shocked to read them. She was totally unaware this had happened. In her letter she speaks about a 'border sett' and a 'blanket sett' in the tartan. For those of you who are unaware the meaning of a 'blanket sett' and a "border sett', let me briefly explain. All modern tartans contain ONLY the blanket sett which is a larger set of squares. A border sett is a series of very small squares that are primarily located along the bottom of the kilt (tartan). If you will closely observe the picture of me in the McBrayer highland uniform - located on the tartan story page - you should be able to see the difference. 2. THE PLAQUE TO THE MCBRAYERS AT ST MICHAELS A ‘cousin,’ who was visiting in Scotland and who visited St Michaels church, apparently could not locate the plaque and had asked where it was located. A question was posted on the family website and a reply was soon received. Robert L. "Bob" McBrayer sent the copy of a page from in In Defiance about the placing of this plaque and the dates. (See the story on the "family news page" in this website.)The article gave the location in the church yard where it could be found. May had made a preliminary search for it before her departure to America but had not located it. Since her return home she has had more time to go to the church yard and did locate the memorial. 3. The McBrayer Coat of Arms For many years I assumed that the coat of arms presented on this website was authentic and actually belonged to the McBrayer family. Now I have found out otherwise. Not only is a oat of arms NOT for a family - it is registered only to a recognized 'chieftain' or 'head of family' and may not (legally) be used by anyone else. It seems that the only registered McBrayer coat of arms is one that was registered several years ago to Dr. Duffy E. McBrayer, Jr. We should all be grateful and proud that the late Dr. Duffy McBrayer, with the qualified assistance of Charles McKerrell, was granted a coat of arms from Lyon Court. Charles McKerrell is the official Chieftain of The McKerrells of Hillhouse and is on a board of heraldry in Scotland that deals with the Scottish coats of arms and heraldry. He is extremely knowledgeable on these matters and is an authority on such subjects. The Letter from Madam McKerrell (printed in its entirety as requested) Dear Carl, You can not imagine how happy I was to meet up with you (and Pat and Jack and Evelyn) again. Thank you for your generous hospitality and friendship – It seemed as if 25 years just vanished! Someone, now deceased, made mischief between us, a long time ago, and I think that we were both too hurt by the comments supposedly made about each other to make contact and check out, but that is now in the past. However looking through newsletters of past years uncovered perhaps the reason why we were discouraged from communicating!! The tartan    Encouraged by Ethel Koller, I offered to research a tartan for the McBrayers. This involved a considerable time in research, paying a weaver to make a sample for submission to the Tartan Society for official listing, and dealing with all the paperwork involved. This was done as a gift of friendship to the McBrayer family. Then I read with you in a newsletter of years ago that Ethel Koller was collecting money for registration of the tartan and was collecting some money, with promises of several donations of $100, but needs more to reach the target of $2,000!! I was quite unaware of this and of course the money never came to me. What happened to the collection? Was it returned to the donors? Probably no one remembers now, but I do want to make it clear that I ever asked for or received any money. So the tartan was ready to weave, but no retail outfit would stock it as they reckoned (rightly) that the turnover would be small, and I agreed to have a length of 60 yards woven, and sell it to the McBrayers. Then I had requests for a  darker (hunting) tartan, I should explain that the original McBrayer tartan was found in Wilsons of Bannockburn’s book of tartan, and this tartan, dated about 1700 had never been named, so it was ‘adopted’ as a McBrayer tartan. I had contacted James Scarlett, the tartan expert of the Tartan Society earlier, when I found the ‘Border Sett’ and he was excited. He had the Blanket Sett and the two went together. The first piece was woven, and you have a unique piece tartan history in your kilt, which was never woven again. I went back to James Scarlett about another tartan and he wove two samples one with a moss brown background, and one with blue, the moss brown was listed and woven, and the blue listed but has never been woven. After James Scarlett’s death I  was informed that he had given me the copyright of these tartans. I didn’t realise the significance till a firm with a large turnover of tartan goods asked me to sell them some McBrayer tartan as they couldn’t have it woven as I had the copyright! So now I sell to a retail outlet at the same price as to the McBrayers. If you want to pay much more for your tartan, don’t buy direct from me. But more of the tartan later. The Plaque to McBrayers at St Michaels   Many years ago I inquired of the Minister of St Michaels Church if there could be a plaque in the church to commemorate the McBrayers of old. I was told firmly no; and in the graveyard? Firmly no, unless by proven descendants, but check with council. The answer again was no. That as far as I was concerned, was, unfortunately final.  This summer I was with a McBrayer family who thought that there was a plaque in the church, but we looked, asked the elders on duty, no nothing there. I asked about the graveyard, but they knew nothing about that either. We looked around but couldn’t find anything. After they left, I called the minister who said there was no plaque, but the council now had the authority in the graveyard, but the council couldn’t find planning permission. On my return (to Scotland) I received Terrell’s email with a picture of the plaque and its position and Charles and I went to check. Yes, it is there, a bronze plaque on the back churchyard wall, so back to the planning department, where they could still find no record of planning permission, but will search the year records again and let me know. Strange though as planning permission usually takes3-4 months, but I’m sure that this was all done with good intentions and the plaque is there, and I am sure that accounts were kept, receipts given, and those who donated were kept informed. There is only one family, the Sandisons, in Dumfries of proven McBrayer descent and they should have been consulted. There is some confusion about names. The McBrayers are a Dumfries family, and the McBriars an Irish family in the Killinchy district of County Down in Ireland. Some McBriars came to Govan in the 1920-1930 depression to work in the shipyards, but there is no connection ever been found between the two families- Ken Harvey is a McBriar. He went to see my friend, Miss Sandison when he came to Dumfries, and told her that he was a McBriar from Ireland and wanted to research to see if he could find a connection between the two families, and asked for copies of all her family research papers, which she gave him, and I believe that he sent them to Terrill. She never heard from him again. But I was not impressed when he rang our doorbell at 11pm one night, when Terrill was staying here. We were all in bed, and he said when Charles went to the door, that he had come to see Terrill. Terrill heard the noise and got up to meet with him, and we went back to bed. A family or clan association can accept anyone they wish as members, but if you take your heritage seriously you can not say that families are relate because the name sounds similar. I was friendly with Ken Harvey’s aunt Dorothy Harrold, and she researched for years, but found no connection between her McBriars from Ireland and the Dumfries McBrayers. The coat of Arms   It came as a shock to me when Charles was working on Duffy’s Petition for a grant of a coat of Arms to find that the coat of Arms that we all accepted as McBrayer are in fact Macrae of Orangfield. We should all be very proud that and grateful that Duffy McBrayer, sadly no longer with us Charles obtained a McBrayer grant of Arms from Lyon Court. The position of Chief of a clan is one of hereditary and taken very seriously and greatly respected in Scotland. I had a great affection for the late Dr Ben McBrayer, but he did himself and the McBrayers a disservice by referring to himself as Chief. – Chairman Convenor or President would be appropriate, but anyone calling themselves Chief when they are not tends to attract ridicule and that disturbs me. I was asked recently whether my McBrayer experience had been positive or negative, and I replied – definitely positive. I have so many McBrayer friends that the problems of the past are insignificant, almost amusing and make good stories, but that is for latter!!! Finally, apart from the pleasure of being with you and your family again, I am tremendously impressed with your research and archive material which benefit all McBrayers, not only now, but for generations to come. The McBrayers owe you a huge debt of gratitude for what I know is a lifetime of dedication to the McBrayer family.   Best wishes, May