Random Thought #79

I've been reading lately about the Tribe of Ephraim. Its actually more of a little history book but it got me thinking about the tribes of Israel and our affiliation. Most of us are from the tribe of Ephraim. We found this out through our patriarchal blessings. What does it mean to belong to a tribe? How is that determination made? If you think about it, back in the days of Jacob (Israel), there were many of people and nations that were not part of Jacob's family. I suppose you could call them Gentiles (even though the term is used in many different ways). What tribe are they from? The reason I ask that question is because everyone is entitled to a patriarchal blessing aren't they? Is it something you can trace through your bloodline? What if your mom and dad were from different tribes? Which one do you take after? Does adoption work the same way? This was actually a big deal back in the days of Jerusalem. Priests had to be of the line of Aaron or a Levite (tribe of Levi). Remember how Laban and Lehi were both from Manasseh? Apparently it wasn't just those of the tribes of Judah and parts of Benjamin that were in Jerusalem. Ishmael was of Ephraim and his family lived in Jerusalem too. Manasseh and Ephraim were part of the 10 tribes that were in the north. When the sons of Lehi married the daughters of Ishmael, were they now still from Manasseh or were they now Ephraim? Were they both? How does that work? I think it would be interesting if when doing our family history and pedigree charts, we included our lineage and linking to the House of Israel too. See if we could pick out any trends. Any of you tried this? Find out anything interesting?