I have been doing genealogy for almost 40 years. A good portion of my ancestors, on both sides came into Pennsylvania and spread out across that state. Looking at a map of PA, I see that I have had ancestors in all counties except the 2 top rows of counties. I am curious about these counties and where did the populous originate from. To clarify that somewhat... did most of the people come the New England Colonies, New York and north, or from Canada?

My earliest were the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and even they came into New Jersey, Virginia, Southern PA and Maryland and then started their westward migration. I can trace most of my families across the country and have learned the dominate routes that most of them took. With a good portion of them being farmers, I would have thought some of them would have went to northern PA, but they didn't, they went west to Iowa and Kansas for several generations before moving on.

Any PA history buffs, know that history?

Garry-

You'd have to ask pcr2 if you want to know the history

of the northern P.A. Inbred mountain hillbillies !!

w

man,i knew right away i was takin a beatin on this one.

certainly not farm country like the southern half of pa.was mostly hemlock forests back then.loggin being the predominate industry.

Thanks pcr2 … was there any predominant nationality that settled those areas?

Garry-

always seemed like quite a mix here.nothing predominate.

Actually a really good book was written by President Theodore Roosevelt, entitled The Winning of the West. In America, most of the migration went from the east to the west. The one deviation from this was the Texans who moved cattle north into the Great Plains and Rocky states.

When you say "migration routes" it is a mixed reality, as for example my family is melded. The Germans settled in Pennsylvania and where mocked by the English for being Cheese Eaters. You will know this name as Jahn Cheese, or what it became as Yankee. My English family were on the coast, but after 1776 for land, moved to Nova Scotia, and by the 1880's were looking for land again, and came to the Great Plains to homestead. So there are exceptions to the migration route rule, but most went east to west as your lines indicate.

There were though pocket migrations which Roosevelt noted, Entire villages of Protestants simply moved to America from Germany, Scandinavia and Germany. Kansas for example was first peopled by the English, who found it too cold, so the German Lutherans appeared as they did in most locations in the interior and turned the wilderness into farms. The railroads advertised in Europe for these poor people, and America received the greatest boost ever, when the Germans settled the interior. They literally took sod and within 3 years God helped them tame the wilderness as rail heads were hauling away mountains of wheat. They overcame with faith, locust, storm, flood, drought, blizzard. This is one of the most remarkable stories in history in what took place when pro American business profited Americans and let them produce goods.

As you are in Ohio, numbers of Virginians (West) and Pennsylvania ended up there, turning the wilderness into civilization and a huge resource for America. It was not always farming as the steel industry lured many people there.

The reason your family spread out most likely was not just land, but trees. When my later family came to Wisconsin, they had enough of chopping trees to grow corn, and moved to the plains. It was always though the case of Horace Greeley, Go West Young Man, in America needed development, and Americans in bust cycles, were offered land they could become wealthy on, if they homesteaded, which was the brain child of Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri.

Pennsylvania though was the Dutch, or Deutsch Germans and the English. They were pacifists and were hard workimg, frugal people. They are the American identity though according to Theodore Roosevelt, in Americans took on the Protestant ethic, as espoused by the Irish, Scot and German, Most of the holiday traditions America has originated in Pennsylvania Germans.

Hope some of that helps.

When the English came to America, they built a church.
When the Germans came, they built a barn.
When the Scots came, they built a whiskey still.

The first records of my Scottish ancestors in New England was two Kimball brothers in the stocks for public drunkenness. Just happy to be in America, I suppose.

My first one was a Hessian Soldier. My family moved similarly. It's been pretty tough to trace my family history - I'm not sure if my Hessian Soldier deserted or was left here after the war.

I heard the family tree in that area didn't fork!

Chris

Garry, many of my ancestors moved the exact same way yours did. They very well be some of the same people.

From the Mayflower, I am descended from Senior Elder William Brewster and his wife Mary. I also may be descended from John Turner, who died the first year, out of his son, who came the next year. Some people say he was another relation of John Turner than son.

We have old tin type photos of ancestors and relatives who lived in Kansas and Iowa before coming to Ohio.

A whole lot of my ancestors came to Ohio from North Carolina too.

Keith

Sir names of many of the families in those areas traced over time would be a general way to start. Also PA may have an historical society like we do in WI and in our case we can review data on a county basis. If the geography of northern PA is significantly different than the southern portion, say more mountains, woods etc. the area would be more attractive ti immigrants that were from similar geographical regions of Europe. Also if that area of PA was not nearly as settled as other portions the Homestead Act may have been in play to settle the area and then the ethnicity could be a much wider range and mostly resettled Americans.

Bryce

pcr2's ancestors dove into the "gene pool"

and discovered there wasn't any water in it !!

w

i guess you could say my family tree looks a lot like a tooth pick.

I find it significant that you said TOOTH and not TEETH pick !!!

Better take good care of that singular pearly white Fang !!

w

so excited he's stutterin.

The six nations of Iroquois in NY and northern PA might have been some impediment of expansion northward out of PA??

The main heritage in my little section of northern PA is German.

It seems to be like that in most of the counties around me.

Some counties have history books which allow you to trace genealogy and other history. I traced my family roots back to Fredrick Leaser, the man who hauled the Liberty Bell. That was pretty cool. I actually live a stones throw away from where he is thought to have lived. Most of my family is PA Dutch.

Genealogy sure is cool. One thimg that does annoy me is how much pride some out into it rather than in their own actual works.


Theres some really great sites out there. Parr of my family mirror what has been said about east west migration. Some got to Bradford/Haverhill in the 1630s, moved to Green Mountains in the 1700s near Shaftsbury, stopped long enough in upstate NY to grab a bride and landed in Southeast WI in the 1840s and help Racine get started.

The Scandinavian immigrant line came straight here for the most part.

My grandfather is my southern line. Started in VA in early 1700s, then to GA after the revolution. The WWII he met my grandmother and came north.

WWII really mixed things up for lots of families.