Thursday, January 2, 2014

To Migrate Or Not To Migrate.

     Ellie, my niece, is getting married this weekend.  And then she and her new husband are leaving for Florida.   He has a great employment opportunity that he can't pass up.   
     It is interesting how some young couples strike out on their own and others stay close to home.   
     Elisha Gates and his bride, Christina Ann Summers left Maryland for Kentucky shortly after their marriage although they moved to a region where many Marylanders had settled.  
     Obviously, some of my earliest colonial ancestors left Europe without any hope of ever seeing family again.  John Stratton, Richard Gardiner, Jacob Berlin, John Hugus and many others left England, France and Germany to start a new life in the colonies.
     James David Armstrong left Belfast in 1849 about two years after his marriage.  To the best of my knowledge he and his wife , Margaret, never saw their parents again.   John McClure Armstrong left Illinois for Nebraska shortly after his marriage although he ended up back in Illinois within a couple of years.
     Annetta Rebecca Mannen married David Baylor and within a month her family migrated from Illinois to Kansas.  
     My own parents left Ohio and came to California. On the other hand, my wife and I wanted to stay close to family. 
     What must it have been like for my ancestors?  It was not like they could hop on a plane and see family within a few hours.   
     At least we can follow Ellie's and Sachi's lives on Facebook and Instagram or use Skype or FaceTime to talk with them.  My brother can hop on a plane and be in Florida within five or six hours.  There was not chance of that before modern times.

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