There's really a Mariner on board!

My middle name is my grandmother's maiden name - Mariner (very appropriate for living on a boat)!  We (including my grandmother) originally thought we were from Scotland.  My great aunt did genealogical research, and we found that my grandmother's relatives fled a pogrom in Russia, and they traveled to Scotland and then continued to Portland, ME.  The parents died on the ship, so the young children arrived in Portland as Russian speaking orphans.  They were given the last name of Mariner as they arrived by boat, and they were taken in by the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, ME.  They were raised by the Shakers, but when they grew up they all left the community with some of the amazing skills the Shakers taught them - architecture, barn building, etc.  One sister, named Ruth, remained behind, and my grandmother remembered visiting her as an elderly woman at the Shaker community.  That's the story of my middle name, and now that I'm living on a boat it makes more sense then ever!