This badge is the official shield of Clan Uisdean, USA, Inc. and was adopted at our annual meeting in Hearne, Texas, in 2003. It came about after a few years of wrangling with ideas and complications. In order to have an official Coat of Arms registered in Great Britain, there is a substantial fee of $5,000 or more, and there are severe limitations on what images can appear. For instance, the American flag in not acceptable.
We were lucky enough to have a family member who is a lawyer skilled in the art of Heraldry, who gave us plenty of free advice. It was finally decided that we would adopt a shield of our own design and register it with no one but ourselves.
There have been many questions as to the real or true Coat of Arms for our family. The answer is that a true set of arms is only worn by the chief of a clan, and since we are not an official clan in the eyes of Great Britain, and since we do not have a chief, there is no true set of arms that we could all wear. However, there is a clan crest for the McDonalds of Sleat, or Clan Uisdean, which we are allowed to wear.
A quick description of the shield we have chosen follows:
UPPER LEFT: The galley is common on most Clan Donald arms and has two sources. It is said to be the galley of the goddess, Isis, and it is also said to represent three brothers who first took the Celts from Ireland to Scotland. It is quite coincidental that the first four groups of family immigrants to America also consisted of three brothers. So we chose to include this.
UPPER RIGHT: The lion rampant is to be worn only by those who descend from royalty and since we descend from Viking and Celtic kings, and from King Robert Bruce of Scotland, and the Lords of the Isles, we are more than allowed to wear this symbol.
LOWER LEFT: The signal fire is representative of a signal fire in 1565 which drew our family back to Ireland. This episode is highly documented and makes a great story to be told later.
LOWER RIGHT: The entwined thistle and shamrock represents our Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish blood. Our family is proven to be among the first spoken of as Scotch-Irish, in 1573. Another great story.
DRAPED ON RIGHT SIDE: The American flag speaks for the heavy involvement of our family in winning freedom for America during the Colonial period, and for settling so much of the frontier. This involves many stories, also highly documented.
TOP: The crown and glove are carried on the typical Clan Donald arms and so we included these to show our connection to that clan.
Shirts, patches, lapel pins and caps have been made available and we use this artwork on our official documents.