From Whence and to Thither -- Understanding Migration Patterns: Part Seven

By Datawheel - Interactive Visualization: Data USAData Source: Census Bureau - ACS 5-year Estimate, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65417465

English: United States Map of Population by State (2015)

   580k - 2.8M

   2.8M - 5.28M

   5.28M - 8.26M

   8.26M - 11.6M

   11.6M - 19.6M

   19.6M - 26.5M

   26.5M - 38.4M

   38.4M - 38.4M

Obviously, many of the families that migrated to New York state in the early 1800s stayed there and By 1820, New York had become the most populous state in the country. See Wikipedia: List of U.S. states by historical population. Today, New York is the fourth most populous state and it is outranked by California, Texas, and Florida in that order. This fact alone shows a definite migration pattern to the west and south.

My Tanner family line moved from Rhode Island to New York, leaving many relatives in Rhode Island who have since spread across the U.S. and around the world. My Fourth Great-grandfather, Joshua Tanner, died in Reeds Corner, Washington, New York. His son, John Tanner moved further north and settled along Lake George in Bolton Landing Warren County, New York. Many of the migrants who moved across the country stayed put and their descendants still live in the place where their ancestors stopped their migration. But my ancestors moved again, several times eventually ending up in Arizona.

These movements were not random, they are based primarily on external influences. Of course, the decision to move is made by the individual, but when hundreds of thousands of individuals and families decide to make the same move, the movement ceases to become random. It is true that some migrations, such as the 1930s Dust Bowl and the Irish Potato Famine are examples of situations that forced migration, but the motivations underlying most migrations are more complex and involve a spectrum of economic, social and cultural incentives. These patterns of movement and the background incentives for their existence are the keys to discovering our ancestors, especially those who are elusive.

Early migrations in North America were limited to the Atlantic seacoast. One early road is called the Boston Post Road. This road was actually a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston. Quoting from a Wikipedia article entitled, "Boston Post Road,"

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States. 

The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1 (US 1) along the shore via Providence, Rhode Island), the Upper Post Road (now US 5 and US 20 from New Haven, Connecticut by way of Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, Connecticut and ran northeastward to Boston via Pomfret, Connecticut).

It is likely that the Tanners traveled this road from Rhode Island up to Boston in their trip north to New York State. They would have then traveled north and west to what is now Warren County.  It may also be the case that they traveled up the Hudson River Valley because both Warren and Washington Counties are near that river.

In the early 1700s, the rough post roads were consolidated into what has been called the King's Highway. It was far from what we would call highway today, but by 1750 there was a continuous road from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina. By the end of the 1700s and the Revolutionary War, the road had been extended from Maine to Georgia.

In looking at these dates and places, you can see that travel, except by boat on the ocean, was extremely limited until the end of the 18th Century. It was only when the economic and social forces after the Revolutionary War, including the increase in immigration, began pushing the population off of the coast into the wilderness of the interior.

From time to time, I will see careless genealogical research that assumes an early 1700s connection between people living in New England or the South where children are born in North Carolina and Connecticut or even in Vermont. Given the ability that people had to travel in these early times, these speculative connections are highly unlikely. Travel throughout the 1700s by land was very difficult and if the records seem to show a connection between to disparate geographical areas of America, it is time to reexamine the records and make different conclusions.

You can see the earlier posts in this series here:

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/02/from-whence-and-to-thither_11.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/02/from-whence-and-to-thither.html
https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither_10.html
https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither_31.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither.html

#RootsTech Announces Broadcast Schedule

https://www.rootstech.org/why-attend?cid=tp-rt-6517

Here is the #RootsTech Streaming Schedule. You might want to check for any changes on the FamilySearch NewsRoom blog. You can watch these broadcasts on #RootsTech.org. No registration is required to view the live streams. All times are in Mountain Standard Time (MST). Check the website for descriptions of the presentations and classes. 

RootsTech Streaming Schedule
(Watch at RootsTech.org. No registration is required to view the live streams. All times are in Mountain Standard Time (MST).
Day	Time (MST)	Class Title	Class Description	Speaker or Speakers
Wednesday, February 28, 2018	9:30 a.m.	Family History in 5 Minutes a Day	Explore 20 ways to effectively do your family history in as little as 5 minutes a day.	Deborah Gamble
	11:00 a.m.	DNA: One Family, One World (Sponsored by Living DNA)	A new project by Living DNA is mapping the world's DNA, building one world family tree through genetics. Gain insight into how this will impact your family history.	David Nicholson
	1:30 p.m.	Organizing and Preserving Photograph Collections	Step-by-step direction in organizing, preserving, and cataloging photo collections for future generations and identifying, digitizing, and sharing collections using family trees and social media.	Ari Wilkins
	3:00 p.m.	Finding the Answers: The Basics of WWII Research	Fire destroyed many US military and civilian service records. Alternative record sources exist to reconstruct service history. Learn how to research World War I and II records.	Jennifer Holik
	4:30 p.m.	Wednesday General Session and Innovation Showcase	Steve Rockwood explores where industry giant, FamilySearch, has been and is going. Introduction of the all-new RootsTech Innovation Showcase.	Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International
Thursday, March 1, 2018	8:30 a.m.	Thursday General Session	Brandon Stanton started Humans of New York, a photography and storytelling blog. HONY has built a devoted following of over 20 million fans across several social media platforms.	Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York
	11:00 a.m.	MyHeritage DNA 101: From Test to Results (Sponsored by MyHeritage)	Learn about the MyHeritage DNA service and how the process works, from taking the test to the lab analysis. Learn about MyHeritage DNA's over 40 ethnicities and how to optimize your DNA matches.	Yaniv Erlich
	1:30 p.m.	Google Photos: Collect, Organize, Preserve, and Share	Google Photos is a powerful, free app for storing, organizing, and sharing. Learn how to edit and create photo projects and automatically add your photos to the app from digital devices.	Michelle Goodrum
	3:00 p.m.	Unlocking Roman Catholic Records	The Catholic Church is essential for uncovering the lives of millions of immigrants from many nationalities. See how findmypast and the Catholic Church are working to make these records easily accessible.	Brian Donovan
	4:30 p.m.	A Gift of Life: Who's Writing Your Story?	Only you can tell the real stories of love, loss, forgiveness, and change. Don't leave the task of finding the answers of your life's history to someone else. Take the time to write your life story.	Deborah Abbott
Friday, March 2, 2018	8:30 a.m.	Friday General Session	Scott Hamilton is the living example that good guys CAN finish first! He is an Olympic champion, cancer survivor, television broadcaster, speaker, author, husband/father, and eternal optimist!	Scott Hamilton, Olympic Skater
	11:00 a.m.	findmypast's British and Irish Hidden Gems (Sponsored by findmypast)	Explore some of the wonderful findmypast.com collections that can help you break down your British ancestry brick walls, go back further in your family research, and add untold color and detail to your family story.	Myko Clelland
	1:30 p.m.	Finding the Right DNA Test for You	DNA testing is becoming an integral tool, but what is it and what does it do? How can DNA actually help your genealogy? If you are brand new to genetic genealogy, this is the class for you.	Jim Brewster
	3:00 p.m.	How Not to Leave Your Genealogy Behind	Nobody wants their genealogy research to end up in a landfill. Hear a few horror stories of genealogy materials destroyed and how you can avoid those mistakes.	Amy Johnson Crow and Curt Witcher
	4:30 p.m.	Finding Elusive Records at FamilySearch	Learn new skills and techniques used by the experts and lesser known record identification tools and features of the FamilySearch website.	Robert Kehrer
Saturday, March 3, 2018	8:30 a.m.	Saturday General Session	Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of popular PBS Finding Your Roots series, and Natalia Lafourcade, one of the most successful singers in the Latin America pop rock genre, will keynote this opening session.	Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Natalia Lafourcade
	11:00 a.m.	Civil Registration Indexes of England and Wales	England and Wales national indexes and recent innovations at the General Register Office have opened up new possibilities and completely new indexes.	Audrey Collins
	1:30 p.m.	Advancing Your Genealogy Research with DNA (Sponsored by Ancestry)	Learn what new tools AncestryDNA has to advance your research and get more out of your DNA results.	Anna Swayne
	3:00 p.m.	Pain in the Access: More Web for Your Genealogy	Library, archive, government, and specialized websites have much to offer. Discover these sites and strategies for getting more online data.	Curt Witcher

Black Mormon Pioneer Experiences

https://history.lds.org/article/in-my-father-s-house-are-many-mansions?lang=eng

My daughter, Amy Tanner Thiriot, will be presenting at the Church History Museum Theater, 45 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday, February 15, 2018, 7:00 p.m. Attendance is free and open to the public. Here is the description of the event.

The first black members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were a vital part of the early history of the Church. They served missions and shared the gospel. As the Church moved west, they helped build Nauvoo and Winter Quarters and drove wagons across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Once in the valley, they helped rescue the stranded Willie and Martin handcart companies, built roads and communities, and raised families in the Mormon settlements of the West.

Many of them experienced great tragedies and losses, but they lived lives of service and built a strong heritage of faith for their descendants and the Church. Join us for an evening of the stories of early Latter-day Saints, including Green Flake, Jane Manning James, Venus Redd, Samuel and Amanda Chambers, Thomas Bankhead, and many others. 

Family and community historian Amy Tanner Thiriot specializes in the stories of the lesser-known, early members of the Church. She is the author of a blog series, The Eminent Women of the St. George Temple, and is currently finishing a book on the experiences of the enslaved African American pioneers of Utah Territory.

Amy is a co-writer on my blogs and contributes from time to time. She writes our family blog TheAncestorFiles that is an excellent example of a family oriented genealogy blog.

From Whence and to Thither -- Understanding Migration Patterns: Part Six

It is important to not get confused by the terms "immigration," "emigration," and "migration." Immigration is the movement of the people coming to live permanently in a country that is foreign to them. For example, someone coming from Ireland or Denmark to the United States. Emigration is the opposite term used to refer to people leaving a country. When you emigrate from your native country, you become an immigrant in the country of your arrival. Migration is used to refer to any other population movements and is a more general term that encompasses immigration, emigration, and movement within a country. Unfortunately, the terms are often confused and sometimes used interchangeably.

Under these definitions, for example, people coming from England (the United Kingdom) during British Colonial times were not immigrants. They were simply moving from one part of their own country to another part by crossing an ocean. On the other hand, the earliest Mormon pioneers were immigrants because the left the United States and went to Mexico.

I have been focusing on the movements of the people within the confines of what is now the continental United States. It is not that other migrations are not important for genealogical research, but I am using the American example because it is, for me, the easiest one to illustrate.

Returning to the Tanner family, we now find my direct line ancestors living in New York around the turn of the century from the 1700s to the 1800s. In moving from Rhode Island, they were joining hundreds of thousands of their fellow Americans in a movement from the other colonies to New York state that occurred just after the Revolutionary War ended. At the same time, the flood of immigrants from Europe was beginning to make the cities along the Atlantic coast some of the largest in the world.

My Third Great-grandfather, John Tanner, moved from Southern New York state to settle along the huge lake known as Lake George were he became a very prosperous farmer and businessman. This movement was essentially from a settled part of the country into, what was then, the wilderness. It is over 200 miles to the northwest of the town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island where he was born. The migration pattern, at this time, was to the west and north. Why was that?

In the case of the Tanners, the younger men likely left because of the inheritance practices in effect at the time. The oldest son usually received the bulk of the inheritance, leaving the younger sons without much of an inheritance, i.e. farmland or whatever, to become self-sufficient. John Tanner's father was Joshua Tanner and the youngest son of his father Francis. The older Tanner men stayed in Rhode Island when Joshua and his family moved north. The lack of an inheritance, plus the availability of open land, was a strong incentive to move into the wilderness.

Now, if you are researching your American ancestors, would the fact that so many people moved from the seaboard colonies (states) into the interior help you to understand where to look for your ancestors? In the case of the Tanners, the research connecting John Tanner's family to Rhode Island from New York was done in the early 1900s. But until recently, no serious research had been done about the family in Rhode Island.

When you begin to speculate about your family's movements, be sure to remember to check that there was a way to travel and that the time it took to travel was reasonable. More about this to come.

Now, what about the movement from Rhode Island to the Lake George area? Why north and west? Look at a map. Then, think about the time period. At the end of the revolutionary war, travel north and south along the East Coast was becoming easier due to roads becoming established. But if you look at a topographical map of the U.S. you will immediately see that that there is a significant mountain range just back from the coast. Here is an example from Google Earth.

So where were the roads or travel corridors? Here is the same approximate area with the current roads from Google Maps.

If you study these maps, as I have already pointed out, you can see that the Interstate Highway system runs from Rhode Island to Albany, New York and then Interstate 87 runs directly north along the west coast of Lake George. The key here is that the Interstate system was built along the most accessible routes across the U.S. If you want to trace your ancestors most probably routes, look at the Interstate system. So the most probable route for the Tanners was along what would become Interstate 295, then along Interstate 90 and then north along Interstate 87 from Albany. As I continue writing about the movement of the Tanners across the United States, you will see how they essentially lived along the future freeways in many cases.

You can see the earlier posts in this series here:

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/02/from-whence-and-to-thither.html
https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither_10.html
https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither_31.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither.html

What is Intellectual Property?

The idea that what someone thinks or produces in the course of communicating with others can be "owned" has evolved over time into a complex web of traditions, laws, privacy claims and a myriad of other beliefs and restrictions.

Intellectual property is an inclusive generic term that has become current in the legal community to designate any work that is protected by statutory laws such as copyright, trademark, patents and any other such regulations or provisions. Every time genealogists look at a record, document, book, or go online to do research, they are becoming involved in intellectual property and all its issues. Disputes about intellectual property rights sometimes end up in court but surprisingly, very few issues arising in the context of genealogical research have been litigated in any of the courts in the United States. Despite this fact, I have found that copyright issues are commonly the subject of questions and concerns by individual genealogists and even commercial entities that are involved in genealogical pursuits.

What is more common than litigation issues are issues arising from record access and control. The statutory limitations form only a small, but important, part of the overall intellectual property issues confronting a historical researcher.

The concept of "intellectual property" has such a broad application that almost anything containing information or communication of any kind can be and is often included. The entire topic has become so complicated that there are now entire law firms that "specialize" in intellectual property law.

The main issues concerning claims to intellectual property ownership are fuzzy in the extreme. What is and what is not "intellectual property" is the basis for constant commentary by the US courts. What is clear is that in general intellectual property rights such as a patent or copyright protects an item, it will be subject to copying. See TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc., 532 U. S. 23, 29 (2001). Also, see the following:

The rights of a patentee or copyright holder are part of a "carefully crafted bargain," Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., 489 U. S. 141, 150-151 (1989), under which, once the patent or copyright 34*34 monopoly has expired, the public may use the invention or work at will and without attribution.

Many of the issues surrounding intellectual property claims have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. One interesting case is that of Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 US 23 - Supreme Court 2003. The facts, in that case, are complicated and Supreme Court's opinion is rather long but if you want an idea of the complexity of the issues, you can try reading the decision of the court.

For genealogists, this issue comes up in the context of copying substantial portions of an original work. I have mentioned this resource a number of times, but it is so valuable that it needs to be part of any genealogist's reference material. It is the Cornell University Library's "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States." This reference is as short and concise as is possible and provides basic guidelines for copyright issues. The main reference point is that before 1923 in the United States there is no protection for works registered or first published in the United States. But remember that every country has its own laws.

Here are a few of the many books on the subject.

Bainbridge, David I. Intellectual Property. Harlow, England; New York: Pearson Education, 2012.

College of Law (England and Wales). Intellectual Property: An Introduction. Guildford: College of Law, 1993.

Engdahl, Sylvia. Intellectual Property Rights. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2010.

Fitzgerald, Anne, and Dimitrios G Eliades. Introduction to Intellectual Property, 2015.

Golvan, Colin. An Introduction to Intellectual Property Law. Sydney: Federation Press in association with Golvan Arts, 1992.

Gregory, Donald A, Charles W Saber, and Jon D Grossman. Introduction to Intellectual Property Law. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1994.

Johnson, Stephen, and Economist Newspaper Limited. Guide to Intellectual Property: What It Is, How to Protect It, How to Exploit It, 2015.

Spiers, Duncan. Intellectual Property Law. Dundee: Dundee University Press, 2009. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1665331.

Vaidhyanathan, Siva. Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction, 2017.

Wherry, Timothy Lee. “The Librarian’s Guide to Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks.” American Library Association, 2002.

World Intellectual Property Organization. Introduction to Intellectual Property: Theory and Practice, 2017.

65 Million New Searchable Mexican Records Added to FamilySearch

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/mexico-records/

In a partnership with Ancestry.com, FamilySearch has added 65 million new Mexican records, with more than 200 million searchable names. The new records are now available to the general public through FamilySearch centers and affiliate libraries worldwide, or on FamilySearch.org for LDS subscribers. Search the new family history records in the “Mexico Indexed Historical Records” collection to find your family. If you click on this link, https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/mexico-records/ you can read more from the four blog post highlighted above.

We have recently begun working with some Spanish speaking people in Annapolis, Maryland and this will be a great opportunity for them to find their families.

From Whence and to Thither -- Understanding Migration Patterns: Part Five

By http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/cassinigm.txt - Cassini, Giovanni Maria, Nuovo Atlante Geografico Universale Delineato Sulle Ultime Osservazioni, V. 3, Rome: Calcogrfia camerale, 1798.This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, a specialist dealer in rare maps and other cartography of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as part of a cooperation project.Deutsch | English | français | македонски | Nederlands | polski | +/−, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14689877

Technically, you could start researching migration patterns in North America back in the earliest prehistoric times. But as I pointed out earlier, for genealogists the main interest lies in tracking our ancestors from the time of European settlement. Before the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent development of mechanized transportation, Movement across the country was limited to the speed of a person or a draft animal such as a horse or ox. Obviously, the first European settlers arrived along the coasts and migrated to the interior.

My own surname family, the Tanner family, is a good example of the kind of migration that occurred from their arrival in about 1680 until the present time. The original immigrant, whose name is known to be William Tanner, may have arrived in what is now Rhode Island or possibly Massachusetts in the late 1600s. Following my direct line, his son, Francis Tanner, lived and died in the relatively small area of Rhode Island. His son, Joshua Tanner, migrated north and west to Washington County, New York. Tax records in Rhode Island show that his family left Rhode Island around 1800 and death records indicate that he died in Reeds Corner, Washington, New York in 1807. The questions that arise as this information is found in the records include the usual how, where, why type questions. Here are a few of those types of questions.

• How did the family travel to New York?
• Why did the leave Rhode Island and why did they choose New York as a destination?
• What did the do for a living when they arrived in New York?
• Which of the family members went to New York and which stayed in Rhode Island?

But more importantly, we need to understand why answering these questions and others that may arise, is important to our genealogical research efforts. Here is a quote from the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki that begins the explanation of my ancestors' move to New York State.

Before 1775 settlement in New York was confined to the Hudson, Mohawk, Schoharie, and Delaware valleys until after the Revolutionary War. During and after the war, New Yorkers loyal to the King of England emigrated to Canada and elsewhere. The Revolutionary War temporarily halted further expansion into the interior. Once the war was over and the title to western lands was obtained from the Iroquois in 1786, New Englanders flocked to all parts of the state. In the two decades after the war, 500,000 new settlers came into New York, and the state tripled its population.

Because of the time period when the Tanners moved to New York State, they traveled with wagons, by horseback and by walking. This move was not made in a vacuum. Further research shows that many of the Tanner relatives and others from Washington County, Rhode Island moved to the same area of New York State. Quoting from my daughter Amy Thiriot's blog, TheAncestorFiles, she relates how she determined that other related family migrated to the same area. The post is entitled, "Finding Thankful, Joshua, and Tabitha"

A distant cousin and local farmer, Oscar W. Tefft (1865-1934), drove around and cataloged all the old burial plots tucked into corners of area farms. Oscar was very interested in family and local history. He helped with the research for the book The Tefft Ancestry (Stocking, 1904).

When he drove up and down the old farm roads and highways in 1917, the burial locations he found had between one and a couple dozen headstones as well a variety of graves marked only by slates.

Oscar listed 19 farm cemeteries and gave each a name: Koert L. Foster's Farm, Alpheus Barber Farm, Daniel Tefft Farm, William Hartshorn Farm, and so forth.

Here is a copy of the pertinent page from the book.

Continuing the explanation from Amy's blog post:

Several months ago, Karen Bray Keeley noted on Family Tree that Joshua Tanner was buried in the William Hartshorn Farm Cemetery. She had seen the name "Joshua Turner" and recognized that the other burials in the small cemetery were Joshua and Thankful's grandchildren, so "Turner" was a misreading of Tanner, and now thanks to Karen we know where Joshua is buried.

I saw her note on Friday and although she used one of the secondary sources it was enough to find the original list.

As I read through the lists, many names were familiar: Tanner, Tefft, Barber, Kenyon. Since so many Tanner relatives migrated in great waves from Washington County, Rhode Island, to Washington County, New York, these families lived and died within miles of each other.

The list cleared up a few mysteries.

If you understand that about half a million people from the early New England colonies migrated to New York in the last two decades of the 1700s and you had a relative who "disappeared" from one of the other colonies or states, you could begin looking in New York.

I will continue with the discussion of what happened with the Tanner family migrations in a subsequent post.

You can see the earlier posts in this series here:

https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither_10.html
https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-whence-and-to-thither.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither_31.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/12/from-whence-and-to-thither.html