How Did My Pennsylvania Ancestor Get Here

How Did My Pennsylvania Ancestor Get There?: MIGRATION TRAILS WEST

Elissa Scalise Powell, CGSM, CGLSM

Pennsylvania was the original “Gateway to the West.” Focusing on the migration routes leading out of Pennsylvania will help trace you trace your ancestors’ records along the way. Migration paths followed Forbes Road, the National Road (now Route 40), and the mighty Ohio River and connecting canals in their push to find new opportunities for land, jobs, and family connections.

First you should learn more about your ancestor’s occupation, military service, ethnic background and religious affiliation. Ethnic groups such as the Germans, Scots-Irish, English, Irish and Welsh moved for many reasons to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and other places, and left behind clues in the areas they passed through. Some men were rewarded with land for military service or bought the rights to bounty land from those who did. Some sought out a new place for religious freedom, but all had a pioneering spirit.

Colonial Period (1607 – 1700); mainly English To the Appalachians (1700 – 63); Germans & Scots-Irish Through the Appalachians (1763 – 83) Trans-Appalachia (1783 – 1812) To the Mississippi River (1812 – 50)

Next consider what types of transportation were available at the time in which he migrated. Consider where he eventually settled and if there was a reason to be there from a certain area.

TIMELINE – Trans-Appalachia to the Mississippi River

1784 - Teacher and explorer John Filson wrote about the Wilderness Road and the exploits of Daniel Boone in his book The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke published in Philadelphia. The book inspired many to head to Kentucky along the Wilderness Road.1

1785 - The State of Pennsylvania authorized 'The Pennsylvania Road' from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh following the old Forbes Road. The road was changed in many ways. It now ran through Greensburg rather than Hannastown and took a south branch through Wilkinsburg. The Great Conestoga Road, completed in 1741, and the later Lancaster Pike (opened in 1794) went

1 http://www.virginia.org/wildernessroad/wrTimeline.asp from Philadelphia to Lancaster. These two roads were linked and this was now the main migration route from the east to the Ohio Valley after the Revolution until the building of the Erie Canal in 1834.2

1790 – First U.S. Census 1795-1796 – The Kentucky portion of the Wilderness Road improved and opened to wagons. 1800 – U.S. population: 5.3 million. Nation’s capital moved from Philadelphia to District of Columbia. 1803 – Ohio became a state. Louisiana Territory purchased from France. 1810 – U.S. population totaled 7.2 million; population west of Appalachian Mtns. was 1 million. 1811 – Construction of the National Road began at Cumberland, MD and went for ten miles. 1812-1814 – War of 1812 1814 – The Rappists purchased 30,000 acres of land in Indiana and founded a new settlement, New Harmony. In 1825 they returned to Pennsylvania and founded Economy, 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Other towns founded by religious groups in this period included Zoar, Ohio; Amana, Iowa; and St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. 1817 – Construction of Erie Canal began to connect the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys with the Hudson River (and the Atlantic Ocean). 1818 – National Road reached Wheeling on the Ohio River from Cumberland, Maryland. 1820 – U.S. population totals 10 million; population west of Appalachian Mtns. was 2.2 million. 1821 – First American tunnel (450 ft.) opens in Pennsylvania. 1825 – Completion of the Erie Canal (364 miles long) constructed by the State of New York. 1830 – U.S. population totaled 13 million; population west of Appalachian Mtns. was 3 million. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in New York. 1832 – Erie Canal connected New York with the Great Lakes and the Northwest Territory.3 Miami-Erie Canal built in the western part of Ohio, from Cincinnati to Dayton.4 1833 – National Road entered Columbus, Ohio from Wheeling, [West] Virginia. Ohio-Erie Canal completed at a cost of $8 million, running 308 miles from Cleveland to Portsmouth. 1834 – The Pennsylvania river-canal navigation system opened between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. This caused heavy freight to be diverted to the canals. Most of the wagon freighters went out of business, but the stagecoach lines continued to prosper.5

2 http://noel.mcn.org/Westmoreland/MigrationTrails.htm 3 http://www.flowofhistory.org/themes/movement_settlement/westerntimeline.php 4 http://www.connerprairie.org/Learn-And-Do/Indiana-History/America-1800-1860/Travel-And-Transportation.aspx 5 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gentutor/Pa_Rd.pdf 1839 – National Road completed to Vandalia, Illinois. 1840 – U.S. population totaled 17 million; population west of Appalachian Mnts. was 5 million. 1842 – First wagon train reached Oregon Territory via the Oregon Trail. 1846-47 – Brigham Young led Mormons from Nauvoo, IL, to the Great Salt Lake in UT.

Considering the reasons to migrate is important in tracing migration paths. Some “Push Factors” made people move such as natural disasters (fire, flood, famine, failed crops, draught, disease, cold winters and weather patterns, volcanoes, earthquakes), inhospitable terrain (mountains, swamps, rocky ground, and prairies), or inhospitable people (lands thought to be in the possession of other groups), or social customs, or persecution.

Migrations reasons may have also included “Pull Factors” such as chain migration (associates already in the new area), land (whether inherited, purchased, or given), a chance to improve one’s lot through new job opportunities, less government on the frontier, or a sense of adventure.

No matter what drove them, finding ancestors’ records can be difficult unless one knows their migration path and the historical customs and social norms of the times in which they lived. Integrating various records creates a total picture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Cross, Mary Bywater. Treasures in the Trunk: Quilts of the Oregon Trail. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1993. Dollarhide, William. Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735–1815. Bountiful, UT: Heritage Quest, 2000. Jacobson, Judy. History for Genealogists: Using Chronological Time Lines to Find and Understand Your Ancestors. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publ. Co., 2009. Kashuba, Melinda. Walking with Your Ancestors. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway Books, 2005. Klein, Benjamin and Eleanor, eds. The Ohio River Handbook and Picture Album. Cincinnati, OH: Young and Klein, Inc., 1954. Magellan Geographix United States History Atlas. Santa Barbara: Magellan Geographix, 2000. Rouse, Parke, Jr. The Great Wagon Road. 1995. Reprint, Richmond, VA: The Dietz Press, 2000. Shank, William H., P. E. Indian Trails to Super Highways. Revised edition. York, PA: American Canal and Transportation Center, 1996.

©2016 by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL Page 3 www.PowellGenealogy.com SOME ONLINE RESOURCES HISTORICAL MAPS 1.) www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histus.html 2.) www.davidrumsey.com 3.) www.archive.org/details/railroadmapsofun00libr (Full text downloadable book)

EASTERN UNITED STATES MIGRATION 4.) www.rootsandroutes.net 5.) www.intl-research.com/images/eastbig.gif 6.) www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html? 7.) www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/railroads/history.html 8.) www.mcn.org/2/noel/Westmoreland/MigrationTrails.htm

OHIO MIGRATION 9.) http://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/a_plss.html 10.) http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/pioneer.html 11.) http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/Gwen/migration.htm

RELIGIOUS MIGRATION 12.) http://www.cob-net.org/folder.htm (Church of the Brethren migration) 13.) http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Equakers/migration.htm 14.) http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mygermanfamilies/Indiana.html

MIGRATION TRAILS 15.) http://www.connerprairie.org/Education-Research/Indiana-History-1800-1860/Travel-and- Transportation 16.) http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mygermanfamilies/Journey.html 17.) http://www.jamiedanker.com/WBALetters/OhioRiverMap.jpg William B Anderson letters 18.) http://www.pacanalsociety.org/ and http://www.canals.org/ 19.) http://www.Route40.net 20.) http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/4186490?id=4186490&n=6 21.) http://www.virginia.org/wildernessroad/wrTimeline.asp 22.) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/triumphnationalism/timeline.pdf 23.) http://www.loc.gov/collection/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/about-this-collection/

OTHER 24.) http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html 25.) dangerousintersection.org/2006/08/29/what-we-can-learn-from-the-clumping-of-dialects-of-religions 26.) http://www.pbs.org/mormons/map/map_02.html 27.) http://sos.ky.gov/admin/land/resources/PublishingImages/KYYesterday13Colonies.jpg