U.S. Migration Patterns: Migration trails listed here, as well as others that can be found online, may help you learn which trails your family might have taken in earlier years of the colonies and the United States. Tracing the trail, census records, and town records, may enable you to find other family members also. Click the title links to get more information on the FamilySearch Research Wiki’
Wilderness Road: Daniel Boone and 35 axmen blazed a trail called the Wilderness Road from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky for the Transylvania Company. When the trail opened in 1775 it became the route of 70,000 settlers who came to Kentucky on foot or horseback before the trail was upgraded to wagon road in 1796.
Cumberland and Great Lake Trail: A break in the Appalachian Mountains allowed pioneers to cross the valley.
Great Valley Road: (also called, the "Great Wagon Road," "Great Warriors' Path," "Valley Pike," "Carolina Road," or "Trading Path") was the most important Colonial American route for settlers of the mountainous back country of the southern British colonies. It went from Philadelphia, PA over to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia forking into the Tennessee Valley and Knoxville. The other fork went more south into the Piedmont Region of North Carolina; and, then to its terminus on the Savannah River at Augusta, GA. From Philadelphia to Augusta was 735 miles (1183 km). Several other important early pathways merged with or split off from the Great Valley Road.
After 1744, the Great Valley Road was most heavily used by Ulster-Irish immigrants, called Scots-Irish in America, to spread through most of Appalachia bringing their Presbyterian religion. Pennsylvania Germans also used the trail to spread into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Starting in 1753, Moravians of Pennsylvania followed the road to settle the Wachovia region of North Carolina. The first settlements of Virginians in Tennessee were associated with the end of the trail in that region in the 1760s.
Pioneer Road: In 1746 the Pioneer Road first crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains from Alexandria to Winchester, VA, where it fed into the Great Valley Road. The Wilderness Road opened in 1775 into central Kentucky, and branched off the Great Valley Road in southwest Virginia at Bristol (Sapling Grove). Starting in the late 1770’s explorers and pioneers at Staunton, VA started using the Kanawha Trail which followed the New River/Kanawha River into West Virginia. From the terminus of the Great Valley Road at Knoxville, Avery's Trace to Nashville opened in 1788, and the Georgia Road to Athens opened in 1805.
Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail started in Independence, MO; then to Fort Kearney, NE; to Fort Bridger, WY; to Soda Springs, ID; and, to Flagstaff Hill at Oregon City, OR. This trail began the 1840 rush by settlers and followed a 2,000-mile journey of great migrations in the history of the United States.
Mormon Trail: Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1846 to 1868, traveled this 1,300-mile (2,092 km) route, known today as the Mormon Trail, and is a part of the United States National Trails System
Find a migration trail your family might have taken and see if names listed belong to your family. Because they often traveled in religious or ethnic groups, some families could be related. It is important to always look at all the listed families.
No comments:
Post a Comment