America was rich in land. It was the land of milk and honey. It was the land of opportunity. Land was the most important draw for immigrants coming from a world where land was owned only by the rich and noble. For over 275 years, from 1620 to 1900, land was available at a relatively cheap price to any who wanted to put down roots.
Land was distributed to settlers willing to move away from the population centers. Scots-Irish accepted the challenge, willing to move into western Virginia, away from British influence in coastal colonies. Germans moved into western Pennsylvania where they set up their own religious communities. It was their sons and daughters who continued the westward movement, pushing over mountains and across lakes to claim land in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond.
The federal government started cash sales of land for $1.25 an acre in 1820 and this sparked movement into Indiana and Illinois and eventually into Iowa. Then the Homestead Act passed in 1862 opened up land in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory for those willing to put in the sweat equity of building and planting to prove up their claim in five years.
Finding your ancestors on the land helps you trace their migration path from their arrival in New York or Baltimore, New Orleans or Galveston to their final destination. Whether they traveled the Erie Canal across New York State and across Lake Erie to Ohio and Michigan, or pulled handcarts from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Salt Lake City, migration was in their blood and they were willing to take a chance to secure the challenges and blessings of land ownership.
Carol Cooke Darrow is a certified genealogist, who teaches genealogy classes in Denver. She is a member
of the Colorado Genealogical Society. Vist their website CGS Website to learn more about genealogy.