But just for fun, last night I made some internet inquiries, and thus comes this cascade of coincidences that I want to tell you about.
When we land in Scotland, we'll be a couple miles from Riccorton, a suburb of Edinburgh. According to a geneology prepared by Cousin Nancy Clary that she kindly emailed to me last night, that's where my great-great-great grandparents, John and Betsy Jackson, raised their son, Peter, and his brother, James. Peter was born in 1813. They all eventually immigrated to America, with Peter and his brother heading to the Minnesota Territory in 1855. The two spent their first night sleeping in a log, near the Minnesota River in Scott County. 
True pioneers, they took raw land from the Mdewakanton Sioux on the edge of the Big Woods. Peter and his brother would later be figures in the 1862 Sioux uprising.For the past eight year years, Kathleen and I have lived in Shakopee, in Scott County, just a few miles from where that log would have been.
In 1857, Peter married Nancy Ives by George Lake in Jamestown Twp near what is now Mankato (Stan's brother Steve lives there now) He returned with her to St. Peter, making the last leg of their journey to Belle Plaine on a steamboat. I like to think they booked the honeymoon suite. Nancy was a nurse, and became known throughout the community for her caregiving. They raised my great grandmother, Ella Belle (1858 - 1918).
Today, when Kathleen and I look west out the window of our Shakopee home, we see an area just beyond Town Line Road.
It's named Jackson Township.
We often pass the Jackson Town Hall. We had no idea of our relationship until last night.
High on a bluff over nearby Belle Plaine sits the Valley View Golf Club. I meet my two brothers there for a round from time to time, a sort of central meeting point. Below the golf course, alongside Highway 169, is the Belle Plaine cemetery. We've never gone into it.
If we did, we would probably see a headstone with the name "Jackson" carved on it, along with the graves of Peter Jackson, his wife and brother. Our forebears.
Our great grandmother Ella Bell is said to have stuck a pin into a visiting Native American chieftan, possibly just one of a number of insults endured at that time. Ella grew up to marry a German named Wendelken, thereby introducing a new nationality to the mongrel Rolfsrud-Brown mix.
In March, I will reverse Peter's route to Minnesota from Scotland, no doubt with greater ease, if not anticipation.
The golf courses we will play (St. Andrews - Old and Jubilee -, Crail, Scotscraig, Fraserburgh and others) are all within an hour of great-great grandfather's hometown. -------------------So Mom's a Scot. Now I must learn to roll an "R", drink Scotch, eat haggis and say "aye laddie." My purebred golf partner, Douglas MacKenzie, says I am just a Scottish "wannabe." Haven't seen HIM in plaid lately.
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(Photos are all examples of Jackson plaid. Not sure what that's all about. The Clan colors or something. Peter Jackson was a salesman for a time before immigrating to the U.S. and becoming a farmer. Wonder if he pitched the clan pattern to Macy's?)
