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Old 08-17-2011, 08:11 PM
 
Location: The High Desert
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Missouri played an interesting role in westward movement. St. Louis really was the "Gateway to the West". Although it was largely French before 1800 a lot of the old Scots/Irish families came west to Missouri fairly early and then many (not all) moved on via the Oregon or California trails, went to Texas, joined the gold rush or just kept looking for cheap land. As they left, they were often replaced by Germans or other central Europeans...sometimes Irish.

It is interesting to look at the census records of a selected Missouri county and see how the names and nationalities changed over time as one group moved out and another moved in. (You can also see this reflected in the founding dates of local churches or when a couple small churches consolidated.)


Where did all those early Missouri people go?
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Old 08-17-2011, 10:16 PM
 
Location: Southeast Missouri
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It seems like many of the Scots-Irish families that moved from Virginia/NC through TN/KY and into my area of Missouri are still here. That includes my family. Most of my family I've found that live here now came here in Civil War days. In fact, two of the towns and one of the counties here were originally settled by my ancestors and cousins. I had some relatives on different sides of the family who ended up in TX, but most stayed here.

It's my experience (and I've been told) that the southeastern areas of the state tend to be more Scots-Irish as well as protestant whereas in the city you have more Germans and Italians and more of a variety of Europeans. The city also tends to be racially diverse, while the rural areas are pretty whitebread. The city also tends to be more Catholic. The city is also more Democratic and the rural areas more Republican. These areas may all be Missouri, but they are different in a lot of ways.

With my experience with the migration of my own families, other than a couple of ancestors who came from England and Germany in the 1830s ish, most were Scots-Irish/English from the VA area and have stayed in this area. Other than that I do have a lot of cousins on one side of the family who moved down to TX. Moving to Texas seemed to be common at one point. I haven't found many that went west, though. At least not in my own family.
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Old 08-18-2011, 04:15 AM
 
Location: Southern Illinois
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If you make a visit down to the Ozarks you'll find a lot of people with freckles and red/sandy hair so I think we still have our Scots-Irish. I've noticed that many of the Germans settled on the MO river corridor and there are several other German communities along Hwy 63 and down into SE MO. I guess I'm a true MO girl--I'm a perfect mixture of both, but no freckles.
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Old 08-18-2011, 07:55 AM
bjh
 
59,952 posts, read 30,279,930 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989 View Post
It seems like many of the Scots-Irish families that moved from Virginia/NC through TN/KY and into my area of Missouri are still here. That includes my family. Most of my family I've found that live here now came here in Civil War days. In fact, two of the towns and one of the counties here were originally settled by my ancestors and cousins. I had some relatives on different sides of the family who ended up in TX, but most stayed here.

It's my experience (and I've been told) that the southeastern areas of the state tend to be more Scots-Irish as well as protestant whereas in the city you have more Germans and Italians and more of a variety of Europeans. The city also tends to be racially diverse, while the rural areas are pretty whitebread. The city also tends to be more Catholic. The city is also more Democratic and the rural areas more Republican. These areas may all be Missouri, but they are different in a lot of ways.

With my experience with the migration of my own families, other than a couple of ancestors who came from England and Germany in the 1830s ish, most were Scots-Irish/English from the VA area and have stayed in this area. Other than that I do have a lot of cousins on one side of the family who moved down to TX. Moving to Texas seemed to be common at one point. I haven't found many that went west, though. At least not in my own family.
At what point? What century/decade do you notice that in?

I'm just wondering for comparison to my ancestors.
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Old 08-18-2011, 07:58 AM
bjh
 
59,952 posts, read 30,279,930 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins View Post
Missouri played an interesting role in westward movement. St. Louis really was the "Gateway to the West". Although it was largely French before 1800 a lot of the old Scots/Irish families came west to Missouri fairly early and then many (not all) moved on via the Oregon or California trails, went to Texas, joined the gold rush or just kept looking for cheap land. As they left, they were often replaced by Germans or other central Europeans...sometimes Irish.

It is interesting to look at the census records of a selected Missouri county and see how the names and nationalities changed over time as one group moved out and another moved in. (You can also see this reflected in the founding dates of local churches or when a couple small churches consolidated.)


Where did all those early Missouri people go?
Interesting point about the founding of churches. That's one of the cool things about genealogy. It involves figuring things out, being a detective, a historian, and a psychologist.

As for your q: as already noted by others, some stayed in MO.

I'll wager that city dwellers were more likely to move on. We have St Louis ancesters who moved to Paducah, Memphis, and Dallas.
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Old 08-18-2011, 09:50 AM
 
Location: North Carolina
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Quote:
Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989 View Post
It seems like many of the Scots-Irish families that moved from Virginia/NC through TN/KY and into my area of Missouri are still here. That includes my family. Most of my family I've found that live here now came here in Civil War days. In fact, two of the towns and one of the counties here were originally settled by my ancestors and cousins. I had some relatives on different sides of the family who ended up in TX, but most stayed here.
Wouldn't be any Seago(s) or Mayo(s) among your surnames? Though the Mayos were in that part of Missouri many years before the Civil War. A number of Seago(s) ended up in Texas; a town was named for them.

I find it kind of interesting that most of my paternal line springs from settlers in SE Missouri, and the maternal line came from western Illinois. There was enough 'cross the river courting to create my direct line

More amusing, to me, is that I moved to NC from the Midwest 20-some years ago and now constantly nag my Missouri family "you oughta move to North Carolina! This state; Virginia and Tennessee, too; is soooo much better than the Midwest! Why anyone wants to stay in that Gawd-fersakin' place is beyond me!"
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Old 08-18-2011, 11:07 AM
 
Location: Southeast Missouri
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bjh View Post
At what point? What century/decade do you notice that in?

I'm just wondering for comparison to my ancestors.
My great-great-great-great grandfather Corbin Pennington was born in KY in 1805 and ended up in Missouri about 1840. He had had children born to him in TN and Illinois between 1829-1837. In 1840, 1842, 1844, 1849, and 1850 he had kids in Lawrence county, Missouri. He moved to Coryell, Texas between 1850 and 1860. He took most of his kids with him (my great-great-great grandfather stayed behind in Missouri and ended up in Wayne county, Missouri).

One of Corbin's kids stayed in Missouri, one went to Virginia, Seven died in Texas, and one daughter I'm not sure about.
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Old 08-18-2011, 11:09 AM
 
Location: Southeast Missouri
5,812 posts, read 18,793,651 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwing View Post
Wouldn't be any Seago(s) or Mayo(s) among your surnames? Though the Mayos were in that part of Missouri many years before the Civil War. A number of Seago(s) ended up in Texas; a town was named for them.

I find it kind of interesting that most of my paternal line springs from settlers in SE Missouri, and the maternal line came from western Illinois. There was enough 'cross the river courting to create my direct line
No Seago or Mayo families among mine.

My family mostly settled in Wayne county, Missouri, which is not near the Mississippi River.
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Old 08-18-2011, 12:01 PM
 
Location: Out there somewhere...a traveling man.
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My MO relatives on my mothers side settled in Webster and Douglas counties from around the 1850's to the 1930's. Few stayed while others migrated and scattered out all over. Some went north some went south and many to the west coast. None went to the eastern states.
Most in MO were farmers that got homesteading land when they arrived in the above 2 counties. Many were militia volunteers in the Civil War and fought in the historical Marmadukes Raid.
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Old 08-18-2011, 05:57 PM
 
Location: Southern Illinois
10,364 posts, read 20,757,242 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwing View Post
Wouldn't be any Seago(s) or Mayo(s) among your surnames? Though the Mayos were in that part of Missouri many years before the Civil War. A number of Seago(s) ended up in Texas; a town was named for them.

I find it kind of interesting that most of my paternal line springs from settlers in SE Missouri, and the maternal line came from western Illinois. There was enough 'cross the river courting to create my direct line

More amusing, to me, is that I moved to NC from the Midwest 20-some years ago and now constantly nag my Missouri family "you oughta move to North Carolina! This state; Virginia and Tennessee, too; is soooo much better than the Midwest! Why anyone wants to stay in that Gawd-fersakin' place is beyond me!"
Interesting--my maternal line springs from settlers in SE MO also, and most of them came from W. IL. SEMO was actually the last part of MO to get settled, due to the draining of the "swump" land. And hey now about the Gawd fersakin place--some of us still like it here and feel that it keeps us tough.

Quote:
Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989 View Post
No Seago or Mayo families among mine.

My family mostly settled in Wayne county, Missouri, which is not near the Mississippi River.
I knew some Mayos around Bloomfield, MO and the lady was really into history, esp Civil War. Are you in Greenville by any chance? I visited the park with the old town, which moved due to flooding. Very interesting.
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