Gorman, Any gorman's out there?

Hey, I have been doing my families history and I was wondering if there were any Gormans out there in Scotland that would like to compare notes, my grandfather came from Canongate!  Let me know!!!!!
Nancy

Hello, Nancy.  I'm from Edinburgh, and The Canongate is the bottom part of the Royal Mile - the bit nearest to Holyrood Palace, rather than to the Castle and St Giles' Cathedral!

I have checked on a number with a number of Scottish sources and can find no mention of Gorman as being Scots or even sept to a major Scottish surname.

It would appear to be Irish in origin, probably from County Tipperary - I did a quick genforum search and here's the URL of the relevant page
http://genforum.genealogy.com/gorman/

This is not to say that your relative WASN'T Scots, just that his family may have been immigrants to Scotland.  Certainly after the Potato Famine in Ireland, many Irish came over to Scotland, looking for work.  This still happens today - particularly on the West Coast of Scotland.

Yes, it seems I can not find the Gorman name listed in the Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. But like Catriona said, it does not mean your family was not Scots.

I will have to defer to Catriona as she seems to be very knowledge in this area - as for me I am reading from a book!  

I wouldn't say 'knowledgeable'....  just a native!    Although I AM a keen student of Scottish history  

Hello, it's Nancy.  Thank you for doing the search guys!!!!!  I have gone back four generations in Canongate Scotland and although we may not have originated in Scotland, before my father everyone lived in Canongate.  The men all seemed to marry Irish woman so that might show us that somewhere prior to my great great grandfather, we may have been Irish.  I always go by my Scottish roots because four generations tells me I am more Scottish than anything else.  My grandfather had a tattoo on his right arm that had the Scottish cross, heart and thistle.  He must have been proud on his homeland.  He was in world war one and belong to the Militia and the Halton rifles.  He died before I was even thought of, he died in nineteen fifty two.  I found out a lot of information about him, seventy pages from the archives of the first war.  I found many marriage certificates, birth and death records in Canongate through the scottish archives, costs money like everthing else but you can print it right off the computer.  I had to send away for one document because there was no photo, that cost twenty-five dollars.  It was worth it because it gave maiden names and marriage dates!!!  I read that a few Gorman's were with the Boyd clan?  I don't know if this is true  and because my family lived in the low lands, I haven't been able to prove it!  Thanks again  for checking and responding guys.  You made my day!!!!!!! Nanc' :

Nancy
Are you referring to The Canongate - an area of Edinburgh?  I've never heard of a town called Canongate, but hey, that doesn't mean there isn't one!

My family have no Irish blood at all - we were highlanders on both sides. We can wander into local graveyards where my Dad is from - and see his name every 2 generations!  Traditionally, Scottish boys were names as follows.... first son named after father's father, next son named for mother's father, next son named for father....   So names stayed the same every two generations!  This practice has died out a little nowadays, but for instance, my uncle Alexander, had 4 sons - those sons ALL named their eldest sons Alexander!  We soon run out nicknames - we have a Zander, an Alex, an Alec and a Sandy!  Talk about confusing  

It is difficult to trace lowland names back to clans because, often, they were never part of the clan structure.  My Dad's family are from Argyll and my mum's family from Sutherland.

Argyll is where my ancestors came from. In particular, Loch Awe. On my wife's side her grandfather was an Aitken and apparently came from the Isle of Skye.

As for as names, I did name my son while thinking about my great grandfather who was William James - we named him James- Paul William MacArthur.

Ok, I have to share a picture  

Lovely photograph of your children.

I used to do Highland Dance when I was a girl, took part in all the main Scottish gatherings - including the Braemar one.

My Dad's family farmed in Argyll and Inverness.  But he didn't follow in the family's footsteps.

We were quite lucky on both sides of the family, as the clearances did not affect either family. My dad's side were not tenants - they owned their land (unusual in Clan areas of the highlands).  My mother's family were predominantly teachers, solicitors, soldiers and other professions and had left the land in Sutherland about 150 years ago, to live in the town.