hearts of the children

i feel like my heart has been turned to my ancestors lately. it started with a national geographic article on the outer hebrides in scotland. a lot of my mom's family is scottish, and after seeing how pretty the outer hebrides were, i decided my family was from one of those islands.

little did i know the real story would be even better. (if no one reads on, i will not be heartbroken. i realize that this is only fascinating to me because they're people i'm related to. this is more for my own records than anything else.)

on june 17, 1239, edward I (longshanks) of england was born. he was the grandson of the bad king john (think robin hood) edward longshanks did a lot of things during his reign. most of the ones we remember are bad. he was known as the hammer of the scots for the horrible things he did to the scottish people.

on july 11, 1274, robert the bruce (raibeart bruis in gaelic) was born in scotland. he was known mainly as a hero in his country; the man who fought for scottish independence. he was also an heir to the scottish throne.

robert and edward fought a war for scottish independence against each other. (well, there was a time when they fought together, but that's an even longer story.) they were in no ways friends, but about 5 generations later, their progeny married each other. the product of that marriage was james ii, king of scotland. i am a direct descendant of that very james, thus i am descended also from both edward longshanks and robert the bruce.

fast forward a long time.

in 1859 - april 11th to be precise, the ship william tapscott set sail from liverpool, england. it was the first, and smallest, of three mormon trips the ship would make. they were holding 725 mormon saints, bound for utah. aboard that sailing were members of the tietjen family, as well as members of the mckay family. the mckays eventually made their way to idaho, while the tietjens went to new mexico. pretty much as far away as it got back in the 1860s.

four generations later, my grandmother (descended from the tietjen family) and my grandfather (descended from the mckay family) met at snow college and married. i am descended from those two different families that sailed the atlantic on the william tapscott.

these are just two examples of the amazing plan of the Lord. my ancestors' paths have crossed twice that we know of. how many more times will my family line cross paths? how many times has it crossed paths that we don't even know about? maybe it will be another 5 generations before we realize it.

the thought fascinates me. we really don't know the impact our lives will have on the countless generations that will follow. who knows that the guy i met at the library the other day will not turn out to be my grandchildren's grandfather. (and not cause i married him :) how amazing to think that i have such a crucial hand in the future of my children and their children. without even realizing it.

i doubt that, while crossing the atlantic, my ancestors were looking around the ship, wondering which families their children would marry. i highly doubt that robert the bruce and edward longshanks envisioned their children marrying while in the heat of battle. but the Lord works in mysterious ways. it's amazing how it all works out.

the william tappscott