Researching Our Migrating Ancestors

American Migration Routes, Road

& Trails

Introduction	Index Of Migration Routes	Our Ancestral Migration Routes
Routes To New York And Pennsylvania	Roads To Kentucky And Tennessee	Routes to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia
Routes To The Northwest Territory	Routes To Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana & Texas	Trails To Utah, California, Oregon & Washington
Routes To The Southwest	Information Websites	Image Gallery

INTRODUCTION

The westward migration that resulted in the rapid settlement of the continental United States is perhaps the most compelling and important theme in American history. In no other place or time has such an immense region been settled so quickly by individuals and small groups of settlers who operated independent of, and at times in direct violation of,

governmental policy. Usually considered the area where the settled portions of civilization meet the untamed wilderness, the frontier moved west over time with the migrations of American settlers. The improvement of existing Native-American trails as well as the development of new

roads was of great importance in determining the relocation and redefinition of the frontier thus in many ways came to

define the process of westward migration, both as a delineating marker between settlement and wilderness and as a gateway to the "West."

Tracing your own family’s paths of migration can prove crucial in identifying previous generations and eventually, figuring out where and how they arrived in the New world as well as where they eventually settled. Knowing the network of trails American pioneers traveled can help you guess where to start looking. The trail descriptions provided on these pages will assist you in understanding the routes your ancestors may have taken to find new homes and opportunities in the vast area now encompassed by the United States.

What we hope to accomplish with this resource is to provide the researcher with some of the basic facts of the major routes that were created and utilized during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The routes are generally grouped according to the area of the United States to which our migrating ancestors were heading. Of primary importance is information regarding where the trails began and ended, as well as other names by which they were also known.

INDEX OF MIGRATION ROUTES

INTRODUCTION

INDEX OF MIGRATION ROUTES

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U