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The Clan Urquhart 2003 North American Gathering

July 25 - July 27

Roanoke Virginia

(Click on Photos for a Larger View)

The 2003 Gathering of the North American Clan Urquhart Association was held at the Holiday Inn Airport in Roanoke Virginia on the weekend of July 25, 2003. The Gathering was attended by Helen and Howard Curl of Arlington Texas.

On the evening of Friday, July 25th, Kenneth Urquhart of Urquhart, Chief of Clan Urquhart led a meeting of the Clan Urquhart Foundation. All Clan members were welcome to attend although only Foundation members could vote. During the meeting: a report on the progress of Foundation projects was given; Proposed projects were presented; and the Foundation membership voted on the proposed projects. Following the Foundation meeting a meeting of the Foundation board was held, again with all Clan members invited to observe.

The next morning,, Saturday July 28, the Clan Association meeting was held. The meeting was very informative with presentations on Clan activities during the past year.

Following the morning session, everyone attended lunch at a very nice Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the gathering. Our first thought was "We have come all the way from Texas to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Virginia!" It was a pleasant surprise. The food was quite good and the staff did a very good job of getting the food out quickly and still hot.

After lunch there was a presentation by the Chief on Clan Urquhart history and a discussion on Genealogy techniques

After lunch everyone gathered for a group picture.

The afternoon session ended around 4:00 and everyone had time to change for a Kirking of the Tartans service at the church of one of the members. The children had had their own afternoon session and joined the Adults for the service.

Saturday evening all of the members attended a dinner followed by a calighie. Several of the members made presentations on Scottish and Clan history, Heraldry, and Customs. The children presented a play which they had been working on in their afternoon session and examples of various folk dances they had been learning. The adults then joined in traditional Scottish folk dancing, assisted by the Chiefs family, .

Sunday morning, Lady Urquhart conducted a session on the 2004 Clan gathering to be held in Scotland. A slide presentation from the 1998 gathering was given and questions from those planning to attend were answered.

The gathering ended at noon Sunday. Everyone that had attended came away with a better understanding of Clan history and activities along with some new friends amongst family they did not know they had.