Paisley Family Association

Middle Tennessee Games

Clan Paisley will be at the Middle Tennessee Scottish Games ( https://www.midtenngames.com/ ) on September 6-7, 2025, at Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville, TN, on Saturday from 9-5 and Sunday 9-4.

There will be a Clan Paisley dinner on Saturday Sept. 6 at 6:00 pm at The Rudder restaurant, 126 River Road, Hendersonville TN.

Bring your tartan and join us in Tennessee!

PFA Meeting 2025

The Paisley Family Association annual meeting and program will be on Saturday, July 26, 2025 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Registration and displays will open at 11 AM, lunch at Noon, followed by a brief business meeting and the keynote presentation by Mark Ulmer. Mark is a retired lawyer, world traveler, and meticulous researcher. His documented facts, shared with an engaging presentation style, will be well worth a trip to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Please contact Diane Langston (dlangsto@yahoo.com) if you have any questions about the event, hotels/campgrounds, or our organization. This is a meeting you don’t want to miss!  See you in July.

Clan Paisley at the Richmond Highland Games

Clan Paisley at Middle Tennessee Scottish Games

Middle Tennessee Scottish Games Flyer

Next Meeting

The Paisley Family Association meeting and luncheon is Saturday, July 22, 2023 at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in McLeansville NC. Visiting and browsing of history items will start at 11:00am. Lunch will be catered and will start at 12 noon. The PFA business meeting will follow. President Don Paisley will be presenting information on the new PFA website. Gary Paisley will update us on the Clan Paisley online family tree. Diane Langston will highlight some interesting DNA outcomes. Following these brief presentations, Don, Gary, and Diane will have their laptops available for you to explore further.

The cost of lunch will be $15 and includes chicken pie, mashed potatoes, green beans, pasta salad, slaw, rolls, tea and water. Dessert is still “to be determined” but may include persimmon pudding, strawberry poke cake and 7-up pound cake. Please RSVP to Diane at dlangsto@yahoo.com by July 8th.

The Paisley Family Association welcomes everyone. Feel free to bring extended family and friends.

Greetings

Members of the Paisley Family Association:

Welcome to the PFA website! Although the site is not finished yet and likely never will be, it’s here.  It is truly a “living document” awaiting your contribution. So, post a comment or a picture or a question.  Feel free to participate and contribute! This is your website! And we welcome you to it!

This site would not have been possible without the contributions of Diane Langston and Gary Paisley. Thanks, Diane and Gary! And special recognition is due to a non-member contributor, Eileen Chandler.   Eileen is the webmaster of the Chandler Family Association, who graciously served as an unpaid advisor to the PFA web team. Without Eileen, this website would never have existed! I will always remember her first advice to me, “If you’re paying more than ten dollars a month for your site, you’re over-paying!” Thanks, Eileen! I hereby declare you an honorary member of the Paisley Family Association!

The website will not be official until voted on and approved at the next Paisley Family Association meeting. 

To join as a Member, contact PaisleyFAweb@gmail.com with your email address.  Thanks!

Don Paisley, President, PFA

New Venue

For the past few years, the Paisley Family Association and our affiliated Clan Paisley (Eastern USA) branch have been searching for an alternative to the Highland Games at Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston was our “home base” for many years, but the recent change of venue at Charleston and other changes to the structure of our organization require us to change our base.

One option is discussed below in the report by Diane Langston. Other options being discussed include The Plains, Virginia Scottish Games and the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in North Carolina. No decision is imminent, and further discussion is anticipated at our next meeting.

photos courtesy of Jay & Diane Langston

Diane’s Report on the Radford Highland Festival–October 2022

Hey Paisley Family,

Jay and I scouted out the Highland Festival on the campus of Radford University. It was in the low 50s, slight breeze, and sunny. We had a good time.

There were 10 Clan tents: Wallace, Campbell, McKay, Malcolm/MacCallum, Bell, Rose, Young, Ferguson, etc. The space, about 14×14, had been marked off for registered clans. Vehicles were allowed to drive up on the sidewalks the evening before or in the morning to unload. No charge for the space, but you had to provide your own tents, tables, and chairs. Extra space could be purchased for $25.

There were more vendors than clans. Other than the one Scottish kilt tent, the others were local crafters and businesses. I enjoyed the unique products for sale. There were plenty of food trucks, but the town of Radford was just a block away and had plenty of places to eat also.

There were very few porta-potties, but we discovered the campus books store, right next to the field, was open and had great restrooms. Because the event was completely open and free to the public, with no gates or barriers, no open alcohol could be sold or consumed around the field. (Per Virginia law). There was a large beer tent with fencing set up next the sound stage, so people could get beer and sit and listen to the Celtic bands.

The athletic events covered the usual, but had some events we had never seen before. There was a huge round stone weighing 115 pounds that contestants tried to pick up and throw. There was two stones attached to chains weighing 440 pounds that contestants had to pick up and walk as far as possible. And then there was the 275 pound rectangle stone that one had to lift to his/her shoulder in one minute.

At noon, the bands and clans marched onto the field. There were five very small pipe bands. They alternated bands and clans marching in. The announcer gave a small talk about each clan, which was really nice. I talked to two of the clan representatives. Their feeling about the Radford event was that you couldn’t beat the price and it was easy set-up. Both recommended the Scottish festival in Plains, Virginia (Northern Virginia). They said the two day event drew lots of clans, had high-end portable toilet trailers with electricity, and all clans had access to a fabulous hospitality tent.

The city of Radford certainly can’t complete with the amenities and atmosphere of Charlestown SC. The cost of Radford is a big plus and definitely a great place for someone local to take charge of and represent the Clan Paisley family. One clan rep I talked to said that they have decided to continue Zoom meetings to hold their annual business meeting so that everyone can attend and have a voice or know what is going on. He said regional directors sponsor tents at as many Scottish events as possible to keep the clan visible in the communities and allow for socializing. 

Diane