Migrations Map

I’ve added a map to the website showing the major migrations of the ancestors of my eight great grandparents and four grandparents.

There are problems and challenges in creating a map such as this. This map only traces the movements of ancestors bearing the last names of my eight great grandparents. Since I (like everybody) have more than 2000 ancestors through the past ten generations (roughly corresponding to going back through the 17th century), it is not possible to represent (or comprehend) all possible paths. Furthermore, because of the convention of families taking the name of the father, most of the omitted ancestors are the ancestors of the mothers in the family tree.

Nevertheless, the map gives a good visualisation of the background of the eight, and will be used as a backdrop for the stories to be told in this blog. You can try it with the red lines, which depict the story of George Sechler and Laura Wright, which I am about halfway through posting. The solid red shows George’s family originating from Germany and settling in Danville PA, and George later going to Groton CT where he met Laura. Laura’s family, the Wrights, are represented by the dotted red lines, coming through Lynn MA, Sandwich MA, Oyster Bay NY and Queens NY, then getting exiled after the American Revolution to Prince Edward Island, later returning to Groton. George and Laura married and moved (with Laura’s parents) to Brooklyn where the main events of the story unfolded.

The map can be reached at any time by clicking the “map” button on the home page.