Hello Rabbenknut,
Just saw your message posting and noted the remark about the MOWAT family. Do they in your family link to the Modie's? The reason I ask is that my father has a very distant Ydna link to a person of the MOWAT surname who is linked to the Shetland Isles.
In the time period you speak of (1400's) this could be about how distant that link is between our common ancestors, but we do know one thing for certain, our MOODY's (Moodie's/Mudie's/Mody's etc.) came out of Norway at some point and most likely settled on Orkney or Northern Scotland at some point. Some of our branches then went over to Nor. Ireland and their genealogies tell of how they came from the Dundee and Fifeshire regions of Scotland prior to that.
Would you happen to know more about the Modie/Mowat links?
Thank you for your time.