By Carrie Sanderson October 16, 2024

We were delighted to speak with the President of Clan Johnston/e in America, Paul Johnston, for November's Johnstone's Clan of the Month celebrations! Read on to find out about the Clan Society and how to get involved if you're interested in your Johnston/e heritage.

Interview with...

Paul Johnston - President Clan Johnston/e in America

Paul Johnston with chief commissioner banner web Paul Johnston with Chief Commissioner Banner

Thank you for joining us for our Clan Johnston/e’s Clan of the Month celebrations, Paul. Great to speak with the President of Clan Johnston/e in America. 

Thank you for having me and thank you for your support for our Clan.

Have you celebrated your clan heritage from a young age?

No, I only began my genealogy research when I was in my early forties. I lost my parents when I was young, so I heard very little about my heritage growing up. And regretfully I didn’t pursue this with most of my aunts, uncles and grandparents when they were alive. When I did start to research my genealogy, I realized that both my grandfathers emigrated from Scotland to southern Ontario in the early 1900’s so I am only a 2nd generation Canadian. Since then, I have been fascinated in tracing the history of my Johnston ancestors in Scotland.

What does being a member of Clan Johnston/e mean to you?

I think it brings to me a great sense of community. I enjoy meeting new and old members at our Scottish Games and Gatherings. We have a great team of Officers managing our Clan, so I find working with them very enjoyable and rewarding.

How did you first get involved with the Clan Johnston/e in America?

I became a member of Clan Johnston/e in America (CJA) in 2003. I joined at the Fergus, ON Games where CJA was hosting a Clan Tent. Apart from meeting some very nice people, I thought that the CJA resources might help me with my genealogy research. Over time my wife Nikki and I began to host tents at various Scottish festivals in Ontario. Later I assumed positions on CJA Council which eventually led me to the Presidency in 2017.

Nikki Paul at Cobourg Highland Games web Nikki and Paul at Cobourg Highland Games

What does the role of President involve? 

As President, I am the principal executive Officer, responsible for running the business of the Clan. We are a Not-for-Profit Corporation, incorporated in the State of New York, so there are annual filings there and with the IRS. Our membership covers both the USA and Canada. 

Of course I can’t do this alone. We have an excellent Council of 11 Officers covering a wide range of duties on behalf of our members. I chair our Strategic Planning Committee of 6 senior Officers who make up our Executive Committee. We meet monthly by Zoom for the purpose of identifying, documenting, and prioritizing CJA issues and needs, and we coordinate solutions and resources to address them. The President is elected by the members and serves for 2-year terms.

In addition, I also serve as Chief Commissioner for North America to the Chief of our Clan, The Right Honourable Earl of Annandale and Hartfell. This position is appointed by our Chief, Lord Patrick Annandale of Scotland for 3-year terms.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?

I believe the most rewarding aspect of my role is to work with such a great team of Officers. They all bring different expertise and experiences to CJA. But we all work very well together and have made tremendous progress over the past several years. Our members recognize this and have been very supportive as we have moved forward.

Please tell us more about your online membership program that was implemented a few years ago.

When I first took over as President, we were still in the days of running things with Excel spreadsheets, and mail-in forms, and checks. Our Council recognized that we needed to improve this to better serve our members. We undertook a Requirements Review and interviewed several vendors with Membership Systems. Eventually we settled for the Community Enterprise System (CE) which covered all our needs at an affordable cost. We then had to setup the systems to suit CJA and organize all our member data for importing into CE. This was followed by extensive testing and reporting. All of this took our team just over a year.

The results are tremendous. Members can join and renew online with easy payment options. The system automatically sends out renewal reminders. This has allowed our Registrar to handle high volumes of work with minimal volunteer time. We can also send email messages to select member groups. There are many more features than I can cover in this space.  And we now have current member data that we can analyse to better serve our members. 

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of this system is that it serves as the backbone for our Members-Only Website (MOW). This website allows us to give active CJA members access to exclusive content such as Johnston/e history books, genealogy resources, newsletter archives, and more. The system screens all logins for active members and denies access to those who have not renewed.

A new project that we are currently working on is a CJA Genealogy Database where members can upload their family trees to the database which will then be searchable across other members trees. This will allow people to look for common ancestors and share resources.

President Paul hosting CJ As first Virtual AGM President Paul hosting CJA's first virtual AGM

Do you have a favourite story or fun fact to share about the history of the Clan?

Amongst our members there seems to be popular support or pride in the fact that the Johnston’s were part of the “Border Reiver’s” Clans who historically plundered and stole cattle from their neighbours but mostly from the English back in the 1500’s. This rough and ready way of life seems to resonate to this day. Although I expect that most current Johnston’s have found much more respectable positions!

Which of the Clan Tartan Variations do you prefer? 

Nikki and I prefer the Johnston Modern tartan for our kilts. Our son Ryan chose the Johnston Weathered for his trews. Many of our American members prefer the Johnston Ancient, so there is certainly a variety out there!

There is a real trend just now for exploring your roots and therefore more interest in Scottish heritage. Have you noticed this within the Society and if so, in what ways?

Yes, there is tremendous interest in this amongst our members. It is probably the number one draw to organizations such as ours. At Scottish Festivals across North America our tent hosts are questioned about genealogy, and Scottish history. Many of our Members also plan trips to Scotland to further explore their heritage. 

Please tell us a bit about your membership of Clans and Scottish Societies of Canada (CASSOC), how does that benefit your Society?

CJA joined CASSOC a couple of years ago. They have a system where all member Clans have a page prepared with their name, Clan badge, tartan images and a QR code that will take you to a Clan info and contact page. This will also link to the public Clan website.

The head of CASSOC regularly attends Games across Canada. They display a large tent with the walls covered by Clan pages. They are usually very busy with attendees looking over the walls for their Clans and clicking on the QR codes. The benefit to CJA is that we are getting much more exposure at Canadian Games where we are not hosting a tent. We feel that this has made a positive contribution to our membership increases. And hopefully it will lead to more CJA hosted tents across Canada.

Finally, can you please tell us how clan members can get involved with Clan Johnston/e in America? 

People can go to https://clanjohnstone.org for some basic information and background regarding Clan Johnston/e in America. Check out the video “Connecting with your Clan Johnstone Heritage”. And there is a link to our Members-Only Website where you can quickly and easily join our Clan.

Once you are a member you will start receiving our quarterly newsletter covering Johnston/e history and member activities. This includes a “Call for Volunteers” page where members can look into volunteer opportunities.

Thank you, Paul, for chatting with us about Clan Johnston/e! It's been fantastic to find out more about the Society, Clan and Heritage.

Check out our Clan Johnstone page to discover more facts and stories about the clan, and please get in touch if you'd like to share a Johnston/e story!