Those of us with immigrant ancestors who crossed the pond often try and figure out where our actual ancestors fit into the larger migration cluster. This is often done by trying to determine who or what brought our immigrant to the area where they settled. What relatives or former neighbors already lived there? What relatives or former neighbors came after them? Who else was in the migration cluster?
We can sometimes forget to do this for our ancestors who were simply migrating from one part of the United States to another. I was working on a couple who migrated from Coshocton County, Ohio, into Adams and Hancock Counties in Illinois in the late 1840s. The husband had several first cousins who settled in the area. The wife had a sister and brother-in-law who also settled in the area. I’m assuming they all knew of each other’s existence and did not randomly end up in the same general area.
It is important to also remember that others besides our biological family may have been a part of this migration cluster. In my case, the brother-in-law’s family also made the move to the area as well suggesting that the migration was larger than just my one pair of ancestors and some of their biological family members. The cluster might have been larger than you think.
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Sometimes, it’s not just family moving in that cluster. My parents needed a larger house (they had already expanded the one we were living in currently). Some dear friends of theirs who were from Scotland, but moved to the U.S., went back to Scotland for a visit. When they returned, they moved from the house right next door to us to a few blocks over. Later, they got a chance to purchase a house miles away in another County. They suggested my family look into the new homes being built. We did. Another couple, also from Scotland, ended up moving to the new city, but not into the same new houses being built at that time. Later on, or around the same time my Dad’s younger brother moved his family to the same city. So, our Cluster was a mixture of family and friends.
Michael, do you have a public tree? I have Illinois ancestors on both sides of my tree and I’m curious whether we have anyone in common. It would most likely be a cousin married in or down the line somewhere because none of your surnames are in my tree.
I have an ancestor table on my site (it’s really incomplete once you get back to the 5th great-grandparent generation). It’s at https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/michaels-ancestors/
There are many ways our ancestors wound up in America, and where.
For one instance, Lutherans were recruiting young German men in the 1850’s to come over to be ministers. One of my greats arrived at the seminary in Fort Wayne Indiana, and then was assigned to a church circuit in Ohio, and then over to Wisconsin! One of his sons also went to seminary and moved from Wisconsin to Illinois to Alabama, to New York to Pennsylvania. Sometimes you have to follow the professional footprint…
Oddly we were told our forebears were from Pennsylvania and had never lived anywhere else…