Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Coming to America

Covering the next several posts, I am going to take a look at immigration patterns up to the outbreak of the Civil War. The reason I am using the Civil War as a cut-off date is simple: Everyone was here by then! My ancestors, that is.

Beginning with the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620 and ending with the arrival of Catherine O'Neil from Ireland about 1852, both sides of the family had made their way from Europe to America.

Many of you have ancestors or immediate family who are relative newcomers to the USA. Others of us claim early America heritage.

For me, the ancestral background is heavily Western European, with a tiny dose of Northern European blood mixed in.

Great Britain dominates the contribution to the family: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Continental Europe: The Netherlands, Switzerland, Flanders/Wallonia/Belgium/Northern France, German States, and Sweden.

These folks arrived in several colonies: Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Netherland/New York and migrated into others: Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina.

In addition to the above colonies that became part of the US, families found their way into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin & Kentucky. We would call other states home later on.

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