The Chief Is Coming - Clan Henderson Society

y Dr. Horace Loftin, FSA ScotHendersonHenrysonHenrisounHendersMacHendryMcHendryMacHenryMcHenryHendryHenryHendrieHendrond’HandressonMacKendrickMcKendrickMacKendryMcKendryMacKendreeKendrickAnd other versionsof MacEanruig“son of Henry”Dear cousins:Well, I’ve finally gotten aroundto writing my annual Christmasletter for all the friends and family.And Russ phoned me last night tosay I’m almost past the deadlinefor the next edition (this one!) ofAn Canach. Since I’ve about usedup my creative energy on theChristmas letter, what shall I haveto say to you in Roots & Twigs?Yes, I do have a message foryou. Now, it’s an old one and youclansmen of long standing haveheard it many times already. Butthe clan has been growing at afantastic rate (for a Scottish ClanSociety anyway); so maybe someof our more recent members needto hear it this one more time.Secretary Carol sends me a copyof every new member application.When I get them, I sit down andwrite in longhand a letter to eachnewcomer. In it, I offer my ownwelcome to the clan and ask them(actually I’m begging them)to sendme genealogies, family histories orANYTHING they can tell me abouttheir own line, from themselvesand offspring back to their earliestknown Henderson (McHenry,McKendrick etc)—”even if only togranddad.”You know this already, forevery one of you has receivedsuch a letter. The last bunch ofapplications Carol sent me endedwith clan member #3410. Wow!That means I have begged andcajoled 3,409 of you (I didn’t sendmyself a letter—I’m clan #0017) tosend in your family data.It has been worth the effort.Starting from one Henderson linein eastern North Carolina (mymother’s), our Henderson database has grown to overflow thecomputer with some 500 separatefamily lines and 50,000 individualnames, thanks to your response tomy request. The papers with familydata you have sent in now fill threebig bookcases in my office; and—more importantly—in the archivesof the Henderson collection inthe Odom Genealogical Libraryin Moultrie, Georgia where theyare available now and for futuregenerations to genealogicalresearchers. (I send your papersto the Odom Library, where theyphotocopy every single sheet fortheir archives; they then returnthe originals to me for our owncollection. Thanks, Odom Library,thanks Beth!)Because of this amassing ofdata—once so scattered, nowbrought together—I am affordedthe great pleasure of receivinga short genealogy with fewnames from you, and (with luck)sending you a family tree ofmaybe ten generations, back toearly Colonial days or to the AuldCountry. Indeed, for the numerousmembers whom we’ve connectedto the Hendersons of Fordell, that’sabout twenty-three generationsand a printout an inch thick.What I’m driving at is this:we have this marvelous mass ofcomputerized Henderson (et al)data because YOU have taken thetime and effort to let us know whatYOU know about your family. Thepieces have added up. The joy ofthis lies in the fact that howevermuch or little (“even if only togranddad”) you contribute—thatmay be exactly the lead some otherclan member needs to find the“missing Henderson” he has beenhunting for oh so many fruitlessyears!A good number of youare already quite involved ingenealogy. Indeed you may havejoined Clan Henderson initiallybecause of our genealogicalprogram. But to those of you towhom family history or genealogyhasn’t yet infected (!), this is myone more plea that you do takethe time to send me what everso little you may know aboutyour Hendersons, McHenrys,McKendricks et al. What you knowmay be what another clansmanneeds to know.So here we have anotherexample for my new Clan motto:YOUR CLAN NEEDS YOU!Yours aye,6 An Canach Winter 2006