Long, long ago, destiny crossed paths when Martha Blair McKay and her five children left Ireland, for Liverpool, England to sail to America where she would join her husband Joseph McKay.

At the same time August Henry Tietjen and Ida Kruger Tietjen (originally from Germany) came from Sweden to Liverpool, England to sail to America.

Both families departed Liverpool on April 7, 1859 on the same ship, the William Tapscott. Once in America, each family made their way to Utah, and eventually the McKays settled in Malad, Idaho while the Tietjens settled in Bluewater, New Mexico.

Many years later the great-great-grandchildren of these two families Darl S Gleed from Malad and Jenna Lee Hassell from Bluewater met at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah and fell in love.

They were married August 6, 1954. Little did their ancestors know that the timely ocean crossing would someday prove the means for our parents to meet and marry.