Memory Lane Inc. - Missouri Migration

Memory Lane Inc. - Missouri Migration - Pamela K. Boyer

Memory Lane Genealogy

Clues in Missouri Migration
Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, CGL

Missouri's unique location in the middle of the United States almost guaranteed migration from the East that would eventually flow through to the West. Today, many Americans trace ancestry to the Show Me State but lack clues as to where their ancestors lived before coming to Missouri. This lecture explores the migration paths and geographic roots of settlers and how these previous residences often determined where they settled within Missouri.

Many Missourians claim Pennsylvania roots as a result of westward migration. Some early travelers followed Forbes's Road or Braddock's Road through Pittsburgh into the Northwest Territory, perhaps stopping for a few generations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois before journeying on the Ohio River to the Mississippi, and then continuing on that great river to Missouri. Others took overland wagons or stagecoaches west from Baltimore to St. Louis along the National Road, closely following the route of today's Interstate Highway 70. And some, primarily Scots-Irish or early Germans, took a roundabout route from southern Pennsylvania, traversing the Great Valley Road south into Virginia or North Carolina, and later migrating to Tennessee and Kentucky before landing in Missouri. Understanding these migration routes and trends may lead researchers to clues about the possible origins of an ancestor who settled in a specific area of Missouri.