A
common complaint amongst genealogists is ancestors who are “missing” in a
census or other document in which they “should” appear. And it doesn’t really help that America is a
really, really big place – theses ancestors, theoretically, could be anywhere.
An
article by Michael P. Conzen, a geography professor, provide clues in his
article “Local Migration Systems in Nineteenth-Century Iowa.” In this piece Conzen
explores the migration fields in Iowa using the 1895 Iowa State census. A
migration field, is simply, the area from which a destination draws its
migrants.
What
Conzen found in Iowa is that many people moved along the Rivers and later west along
the railroad lines. In fact the connection between westward movement and the
railroad was so strong, he basically said it wasn’t worth talking about. He
also found that the larger the city, the larger the migration field.
On
the ground, this means smaller cities in Eastern Iowa, like Keokuk sent plenty
of migrants westward and only pulled in-migrants from a few surrounding
counties. The two largest cities, Sioux City and Dubuque, pulled people from all
over the state. In Ohio, where I do much research, Wellsville, on the Ohio
River, would only pull from a small surrounding area. On the other hand,
Cincinnati and later Cleveland, would draw people from a larger area. Similar
patterns are seen in Great Britain.
How
might Conzen’s study help you find your missing ancestors? For starters if you're trying to figure out where someone was before look eastwards. If you are looking for where they went next, always
look west. Yes, Americans did move move in both directions, but the general trend was an east-west migration.
Follow the major transportation networks: rivers, turnpikes, canals and
eventually, the railroads. I suppose
your ancestors could have gone orienteering with a map and a compass to reach their destination, but it’s not very likely.
If your ancestor is located in a
small town in one census but not in the previous one, check all the surrounding
counties in an expanding radius. If they are in a large town, follow the same
procedure, but with bigger radiating circles. Basically, it is more likely that
your ancestor would have moved, for example, from Brush Creek Township in
Jefferson County, Ohio to either sizable towns of Wellsville or Steubenville
than to have moved from Cleveland to Brush Creek Township.
*****
Conzen,
Michael P. “Local Migration Systems in Nineteenth-Century Iowa,” Geographical Review, vol. 64, no. 3,
(Jul 1974), pp. 339-361. Stable URL from JSTOR is here, which provides access to the first page unless you have subscription to JSTOR. You
may be able to access JSTOR through your local library.
