By: Michaela Gonzalez; Staff Writer
In Journalism, we always appreciate diverse ethnic backgrounds. China, Palestine, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, you name it. When talking about this topic in class, Mr.Hensley brings up his Scottish ancestry. “Yeah, I think I’m in line for the Scottish throne,” he throws out blatantly. We all were left in awe when he continued. “ I have this journal at home that my grandpa gave me. My family always told me stories about my great great great great great great grandfather that immigrated from Scotland to Maryland between 1750 or something to flee persecution from the British” After the entire class was dumbstruck, we bombarded him with questions about his entire life story. When he was eight, his parents moved to the Golden Coast of California to further his passion for surfing and to enroll him in California’s prestigious and traditional bagpipe program, Sacramento School of Piping and Drumming. Mr.Hensley explains his love for bagpipes started as a way to get in touch with his deep ancestry and love for his Scottish roots before his parents moved to California from Maryland, for him to express his dual passions at the time. “I have always had a deep place in my heart where my Scottish ancestors guide me to always do the right thing,” Mr.Hensley expresses to us.
After coming back the next day after fishing for the family journal and translating the Gaelic, he found out that his ancestor who immigrated here, David Agnus Hensley, was in line for the Scottish throne before fleeing to the New World. In the journal, David expresses his distress and feeling out of place when arriving on American land. As we all crowd around the primitive book, we notice how he expresses, “My love for the waves increases as I draw closer to my reluctant new home. To ride a piece of material along them would owe me a great joy.” We all talk among ourselves that this could possibly be a subconscious reason for Mr.Hensley’s great love for surfing.
As we find out in the journal as well, David Angus mentions his great ancestor that lived in the first Gille Coemgáin of Moray, the cousin of the infamous Macbeth, who killed the King Duncan of Scotland in 1040. Mr.Hensley states he knew an idea of this, but never the whole picture that he was in line for the throne! As we all realized that there is a person in the line for the Scottish throne within our classroom. In fact, through some more digging, we found that he is 385th in line for kinsmanship.
Interested in his ancestry, he got into contact with his family members in modern day Inverness. He is planning on moving back to his motherland later this year.
