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Nearly all my branches took two routes: England --> Maryland -->Ohio -->Illinois
or
England -->Maryland -->Virginia --> North Carolina -->Tennessee -->Kentucky -->Illinois
Kind of funny that, after 5 generations, I up and moved from Illinois to North Carolina, never realizing I was back in the family's old stomping grounds until I started doing genealogy
Myself - I prefer North Carolina over the Midwest and wonder why in the sam hill anyone would want to live in Western Illinois when NC is such a neat state. I chalk it up to the availability of richer farmland and politics. NC sure feels more like home than Illinois ever did, though
It depends on how and why they arrived in NC. It was the major port for the region so many arrived there, and those who could buy land early began the first 'plantation' system' by starting tabacco farms on that land. If you ancestors arrived free then they might have moved on, or if there was something to buy they might have done that. If like three quarters of those who arrived, they were indentured they likely stayed because they had no choice. If you see people leaving between seven and eleven years after 1719, they may have come as convicts.
Labor was the desperate need, as were those who came voluntarily under an indenture or were tricked into it.
When leaving the primary migration path was Tennessee/WVirgiia/Kentucky which were not differenchated at the time. Runaways often took this route as it has the best chance of blending and not being found. The other primary path was north to Illinious and into Pennsulvania where free land grant land was available. If you wanted a good farm it was better than the western route where the soil was very poor.
North Carolina in early colonial times was a blossoming new society, but one in which the good land was held by the wealthy and the poor land of no worth so there was little reason to stay when you could go.
Have you noticed any patterns in the paths your ancestors took?
Most of mine - who were mostly Northern Ireland Scottish...lived in Lancaster County PA for a while (maybe a generation or less), and then headed southwest along what is today the I-81 corridor into south central Appalachia. Most ended up in North Carolina and Virginia and then worked their way into eastern Kentucky.
My family (also Scots-Irish) followed a somewhat similar path, and there are historical reasons for that: Around 1730 there was a great wave of Scots-Irish immigrants to U.S. and nearly all of them came through Philadelphia and stayed for a generation or two in Pennsylvania.
The governor of Pennsylvania at the time lured the Ulster Scots across the Atlantic, promising them free land in western PA. But there was a catch, which he intentionally failed to mention: You had to fight the Indians to keep your land. Pennsylvania, of course, was settled by the Quakers, who were noted pacifists. The Quakers were so nonviolent that they even refused to lift a finger as the Indians rode into town and killed them one by one. So the Scots-Irish were placed on the western PA frontier to act as bodyguards for the Quakers.
Initially, the Scots-Irish were not allowed to settle in the South or leave Pennsylvania by law. The Englishmen who controlled the pre-Revolutionary Deep South had a very dim view of the Ulster-Scots (read: Scots-Irish = the white trash, riff-raff of British society) and they did not want them sullying Virginia or the Carolinas.
Long story short, it wasn't until after the Revolution that this earliest wave Scots-Irish immigrants left Pennsylvania and began to populate Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Appalachias. But there was another Catch 22. They were only allowed to settle in the western parts of these states for the same reasons they were allowed to settle only in the western part of PA: They were to be the first line of defense against an Indian attack to protect the grandees who owned the plantations along the coast.
My mother's maternal line is Hawaiian, so they were there long before it became a state. My 2x great-grandfather on that side left southern China in the mid-1800's to go to Hawai'i to work on the plantations.
My mother's paternal line is Filipino, her father emigrated to Hawai'i to work on the plantations. His family's ethnic background is Malay, and there might or might not also be Spanish on that side, as he and his parents all had Spanish names. Haven't been able to find any more information on that line yet.
My father's maternal line came from Puerto Rico. His mother left Puerto Rico to move to New York. Her ethnic background is Puerto Rican, Spanish, Taino Indian, and Yoruba African. The Taino and African blood came through slavery, though the Taino were in Puerto Rico long before the Spanish ever arrived. I don't know when my Spanish line arrived in Puerto Rico.
My father's paternal line is Basque, Spanish, Cuban, Norwegian. His father left Cuba, stopped in Florida, then moved to New York. His grandfather left the Basque Country (Spain) to move to Cuba. Sometime around 800 CE, a Viking left Norway to raid Gascony and left his issue and his name with a Basque female ancestor in France. My father's grandmother's family was living in Cuba and is of Spanish extraction. I don't know when her line arrived in Cuba from Spain.
My father, born in New York, was in the Marine Corps and stationed in Hawai'i when he met my mother and made me. That's how all my lines came together
Two lines of my family arrived in what is now Spotsylvania County, VA as African slaves. From there they went into Cheraw, SC in Chesterfield County. They then migrated from there to Wayne County, MS after the signing of Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1815. From there they arrived in my hometown.
Have you noticed any patterns in the paths your ancestors took?
Most of mine - who were mostly Northern Ireland Scottish, with a lot of Welsh and some Germans - enter the United States at Philadelpiha, lived in Lancaster County PA for a while (maybe a generation or less), and then headed southwest along what is today the I-81 corridor into south central Appalachia. Most ended up in North Carolina and Virginia and then worked their way into eastern Kentucky. My English ancestors (around 20% of my family lines) arrived in colonial Virginia before 1650 and gradually moved westward.
My paternal line entered at the port of Savannah GA but immediately moved to North Carolina and again worked westward. The lived in Montgomery County NC, then moved to Rutherford County, NC, then to Lee County VA, and then to Harlan County KY
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal
Scottish/English of paternal side left Britain and arrived on the shores of Maryland in 1690's. Migrated to Kentucky, then to Western Missouri by mid 1800's. Maternal side is German & Welsh but time of migration to the US is unknown, likely 1800's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwing
Nearly all my branches took two routes: England --> Maryland -->Ohio -->Illinois
or England -->Maryland -->Virginia --> North Carolina -->Tennessee -->Kentucky -->Illinois
Kind of funny that, after 5 generations, I up and moved from Illinois to North Carolina, never realizing I was back in the family's old stomping grounds until I started doing genealogy
Myself - I prefer North Carolina over the Midwest and wonder why in the sam hill anyone would want to live in Western Illinois when NC is such a neat state. I chalk it up to the availability of richer farmland and politics. NC sure feels more like home than Illinois ever did, though
Although a great deal of information is still lacking (filling in the holes as it were) it appears that my ancestral lines have a combination of the above in common.
Sailing from England with a destination of Maryland, Virginia, and/or N. Carolina ultimately making their way from Stokes County N. Carolina and into the Pennyroyal Plateau region of Kentucky. They have served militarily in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and every single war afterwards.
My understanding is 'we' are settled from coast to coast and are Urban Appalachians having left the South for jobs after WWII 'up north' to Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.
A lot of ancestors/relatives in a great many places.
On my father's side, Lithuania ---> United Kingdom (Grimsby) ---> London ----> Cardiff -----> Newcastle -----> Lancashire
On my mother's side (all in UK), Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire ----> Lincolnshire ----> Yorkshire ----> Lancashire
Also on my mother's side, one great great uncle and one great great aunt emigrated to Canada around 1900-1910 and on great great uncle emigrated to Australia around the same time. My uncle also emigrated to Australia in 1950.
England>>Mass Bay Colony>>dispersed throughout what was to become New England, mostly moving north into New Hampshire and Vermont and even up into Canada.
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