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Archiver > GEN-NYS > 1998-01 > 0885869220


From: Gail Brown <>
Subject: Re: 1810-1830 immigration
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:47:00 -0600


Thank you Jean - and Kelvin - for the explanation of the westward
movement of our ancestors! I've wondered about my NH Daniel CLARK and
wife Betsy, whose entire offspring of 8 left NH, as if by a spray of
buckshot. Three ended up in NY, 1 in Ontario, 1 in IL, 1 in IN, 1 in
MI, & 1 in MS. I still don't know when they left NH, but the 1816 date
is a good clue and would lead me to believe the whole family went
somewhere - maybe Ontario. What was so attractive about Ontario -
Waterloo, to be exact?

At the same time, I had family in Otsego Co. NY - some remained but
others left for MI around 1834. It looks like NY filled up very quickly
after the Revolution, but then the Erie Canal took a lot of people even
further westward.

No, I surely don't envy the women of those days! M 4th
great-grandmother Susan DENSMORE SMITH died at 30, one sister at 33, and
another lived to the ripe old age of 46 in early 19th century NY. It's
beautiful country today, with all the modern conveniences, but it must
have been a really hard life then.

Somehow I missed Midwive's Tale. Darn!

Gail

Jean Snow wrote:
>
> Perhaps some moved farther West after 1816 in hopes of better weather! The
> explosion of Mount Tambura in the Dutch East Indies in April 1816 spewed
> debris into the atmosphere which dimmed the skies of much of the Northern
> Hemisphere, making temperatures all over the world plummet. It snowed in
> June in New England and killing frosts continued through August. They wryly
> called this "The Year Without a Summer" or "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to
> Death." "Volcano Weather: The Story of 1816, the Year Without a Summer" by
> Henry & Elizabeth Stommel, Seven Seas Press, Newport RI, c 1983 will give
> you a good idea of what they faced.
> I think also that there were (are?) a lot of places in NE and NY where the
> soil was so poor it was called "hard scrabble." Many people look for ways to
> better themselves, and if the land beyond was free and open, why not go? I
> feel sorry though for the poor women of the Westward Trek, who had little to
> say about leaving families, familiar circumstances, and certain comforts to
> travel by wagon or horse, pregnant or not! BTW, I hope many of you saw the
> recent PBS special, The Midwive's Tale. It is a fascinating picture of how
> our ancestors struggled to live. Jean

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