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Finding Migration Routes in Federal Census Records
 By Jean Nudd, Archivist
 

Probably the most useful set of records held by the National Archives and Records Administration for migration studies is the federal census. The key to using the census for migration research is to work methodically back through time from census to census, starting with the most recent known point of residence. Researchers may also have information that tells where a family started out, or what the stops were along the way, and this will simplify the search. And, as long as the search is in the records after 1850, each census can hold the clues to a migration route.

Finding the census at the last residence, or in any census after 1850, can show the researcher where children were born, which is an important element in tracing the migration route. And, beginning in 1870, the census also shows places of birth of the parents which suggests where they started from.

For example, I knew from my mother that my great grandfather, Israel Goodman, lived in Indianola, Iowa. She had no idea where he was from but she did remember sitting on her grandmother Sophia’s lap listening to stories of a wagon train. Her cousin Dorothy filled in the fact that the wagon train went from Ohio to Iowa. The 1870 census for Indianola, Iowa, shows Israel’s place of birth as Pennsylvania and his father’s birthplace listed as Germany with his mother’s birthplace listed as Pennsylvania.1

The 1870 census also helps me determine the route the family took to Iowa. It shows that Elizabeth, age 13, was born in Iowa, while her 16-year old brother William was born in Ohio.2 This tells me that Israel moved his family from Ohio to Iowa between 1854 and 1857. Since Sophia, who was born about 1852,3 had very distinct memories of the move, I surmise that it was later rather than earlier in the 1850s. I haven’t been able to pinpoint the date of Israel’s move from Pennsylvania to Ohio but I do know he was married in Delaware, Ohio, in 1845.4

As I was writing this article, the new NGS Newsmagazine landed on my desk. In it is an article by Caroline Braxton Rober on land and tax records in early Ohio. She reviews CD #651 from Family Tree Maker, which includes five books on early Ohio land and tax records. She also gives important information on the Bureau of Land Management’s on-line database of land grants, <www.glorecords.blm.gov>, which can be very useful in migration research. I’ll have to try it out and see if I can find a Goodman land grant in early Ohio!5

Perhaps the most useful tools developed over the past several years are the Family Tree Maker national (all name) CD census indexes, the recently released LDS 1880 all name index and census CDs and the on-line 1900 census, which is searchable. These new products allow researchers to search more than one state at once, so the old time-consuming task of sequentially reading many census index books (or soundex rolls) for a wide range of states to find someone is no longer necessary, at least most of the time.

Having a family genealogy can also be useful in providing clues for tracing migration. Dorothy provided me with a copy of an unpublished, anonymously penned Wells genealogy. My mother was a Wells. The genealogy starts with William Wells in Southold, Long Island, Connecticut in the 1650s.6 I’ve been working for six years to confirm the information in this unreferenced work. I’ve located a number of citations for William, in books as well as on-line, with much disagreement on his parentage. I have yet to see the original sources themselves. This is definitely work-in-progress. I’ve also found some documentation of the family’s movement from Long Island during the Revolutionary War to my mother’s birth in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1918.7

The story that emerges is the following. Selah Wells (Joshua, Joshua, Joshua, William) was born in Southold, Long Island, New York, on April 1, 1750.8 Along with many others, Selah was forced out of Long Island during the Revolutionary War.9 He appears on the 1790 census in Amenia, Dutchess County, New York.10 By 1800, Selah moved his family to Marshfield, Caledonia County, Vermont, where they appear on the census until 1810.11 For 1820, 1830 and 1840, I don’t find Selah listed in a census index and believe he may have lived with one or more of his children over those years. He is supposed to have died in Newbury, Vermont, in 1842.12 His son, Ebenezer, appears on the 1830 and 1840 Peacham, Caledonia County, Vermont, census but doesn’t have an older man living with him.13 But in 1850, Ebenezer is in Newbury, Vermont, 14 where his father is reported to have died in 1842.15 In 1855, Ebenezer died in Wheatland, Michigan16 where his son, Gideon, had moved earlier.17

According to our yet to be proven Wells genealogy, Gideon Spencer Wells was born in Peacham, Vermont, in 1809 and married Eliza Gilbert in 1834 in Forestville, New York.18 We know from the census that he was in Wheatland, Michigan by 1840. We therefore suspect that part of Gideon’s migration route from Peacham, Vermont, to Wheatland, Michigan, took him through Forestville, New York.. It seems likely that he traveled to Bennington, then across the Catskill Turnpike, from Bath to Olean, New York, to Lake Erie. He may have taken the northern New York route, but that wouldn’t have taken him through Forestville.19

Other questions are why did Gideon leave Vermont? What means of transportation did he use to get to Michigan? Between 1830 and 1840, Vermont lost much of its population. A large number of small-acreage farmers sold out to larger farmers because of the wool boom in Vermont. Additionally, newspapers of the era sang the praises of “the west” as a place of cheap, fertile land with a healthy climate. Many Vermonters went west on an all-water route; steamboats to Whitehall on Lake Champlain or packet boats to Troy, Buffalo, or even Detroit, Cleveland and Green Bay. Railroads were also springing up throughout Vermont, New York, and points west. It seems likely that Ebenezer’s trip to Wheatland was by rail since by 1850 that was the predominant means of transportation.20

According to our Wells genealogy, Gideon’s son, James Dwight Wells, was a minister. He was born January 3, 1849 in Wheatland, Michigan.21 He married Lillian Evangeline Steward in Wheatland on August 25, 1875.22 In 1880, James and Lillian appear on the Wheatland census, apparently living with her brother, John.23 Between 1880 and 1884, James and Lillian moved to Iowa.24 The 1900 census shows the places and approximate dates of birth of their children along their migration route: Wirt was born about 1880 in Indiana; Hope Lillian in 1882 in Illinois; and Clifford Webb in 1884 in Iowa. Clifford’s younger siblings, James, Gilbert, and the last child, Ruth, were all born in Iowa.25 The anonymous Wells genealogy gives us an idea of the route they took because it gives possible exact places of birth for the children. It states that Wirt was born in Kokomo, Indiana; Hope was born in Woodstock, Illinois; Clifford was born in Webster City, Iowa, as was his younger brother James; Gilbert was born in Ames, Iowa; and Ruth was born in October, 1893 in Shell Rock, Iowa, and died in December, 1893 in Des Moines.26 The family certainly moved around Iowa before they settled in Des Moines, and this could have been because of James’ profession as a minister. It’s possible to plot these birthplaces on a map using several sources, or simply by using the AniMap CD with SiteFinder (described elsewhere in this issue).27 Looking at the map, the sequence of these places of birth seems quite logical, except perhaps for those in Iowa where their movement about the state may have followed James’ work.28

The family remained in Des Moines.29 Clifford, my grandfather, moved to Orange, New Jersey, when my mother was a baby, around 1921.30 Of course, I won’t be able to locate them on another census until next year when the 1930 census is released in April.

__________________

Endnotes

  1. Israel Goodman household, 1870 U.S. Census, Warren County, Iowa, population schedule, Indianola township, page 501, dwelling 250, family 259; National Archives micropublication M593, roll 423.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Delaware County marriage register, 1845, page 520, County Clerk’s Office, Delaware, Ohio.

  5. Caroline Braxton Rober, “Family Archives CD #651, Land and Tax Records: Ohio, 1787-1840,” NGS Newsletter 27,5 (September/October 2001): 289-291.

  6. [Anonymous], “Wells Genealogy, 1566 to 1918,” typescript copies from Dorothy Fellingham to Jean Nudd, 1995.

  7. Eleanor W. Nudd, “Autobiography” (unpublished), 30, held in 2001 by Jean Nudd (208 2nd St., Pittsfield, MA 01201).

  8. “Wells Genealogy.”

  9. Frederick Gregory Mather, Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon Co., 1913), 628.

  10. Selah Wells household, 1790 U.S. Census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Amenia town, page 73, National Archives micropublication M637, roll 6.

  11. Selah Wells household, 1800 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, population schedule, Marshfield town, page 269, National Archives micropublication M32, roll 51; 1810 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, population schedule, Marshfield town, page 156, National Archives micropublication M252, roll 64.

  12. “Wells Genealogy.”

  13. Ebenezer Wells household, 1830 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, population schedule, Peacham town, page 373, National Archives micropublication M19, roll 187; 1840 U.S. Census, Caledonia County, Vermont, population schedule, Peacham town, page 405, National Archives micropublication M704, roll 540.

  14. Ebenezer Wells household, 1850 U.S. Census, Orange County, Vermont, population schedule, Newbury town, page 130, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 926

  15. “Wells Genealogy.”

  16. Ibid.

  17. Gideon Spencer Wells household, 1840 U.S. Census, Hillsdale County, Michigan, population schedule, Wheatland Township, page 64, National Archives micropublication M704, roll 205.

  18. “Wells Genealogy.”

  19. Dollarhide, William, Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815. (Bountiful, UT: Heritage Quest, 1997), 14.

  20. Stilwell, Lewis D., Migration from Vermont. (Montpelier, VT: Vermont Historical Society & Academy Books, 1948), 184-189, 216.

  21. “Wells Genealogy.”

  22. Ibid.

  23. John Steward household, 1880 U.S. Census, Hillsdale County, Michigan, population schedule, Wheatland Township, page 3A, National Archives micropublication T9, roll 581.

  24. Lillian Steward Wells household, 1900 U.S. Census, Polk County, Iowa, population schedule, Des Moines city, enumeration district 72, page 6B, dwelling 114, family 133, National Archives micropublication T623, roll 453.

  25. Ibid.

  26. “Wells Genealogy.”

  27. To find out what county a town is located in, I used Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America. (Detroit, MI: Amnigraphics, Inc., 1991). This multi-volume set is arranged according to the area of the country. I used Volume 2, Northeastern States, page 231; Volume 6, Great Lakes States, pages 118, 180, 387; and Volume 7, Plains States, pages 6, 18, 59, and 68. An excellent source for locating townships within counties is Andriot, John L., Township Atlas of the United States. (McLean, VA: Androit Associates, 1979), pages 200-203, 220-222, 236-240, 434-436. Or AniMap CD shows the counties at the times, the towns can be “plucked” from SiteFinder, and placed on the map.

  28. Miller, Olga K., Migration, Emigration, Immigration Principally to the United States and in the United States. (Logan, UT: Everton Publishers, Inc., 1974), page 88.

  29. Eleanor W. Nudd, “Autobiography”.

  30. Ibid.¨

 

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Last revised 05/17/2006