In early 2015 I had just completed work on The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640, with abbreviated entries for each known head of household or isolated individual participant in the Great Migration. The result was an alphabetical listing of about 5,700 families or individuals. Each entry included last name, first name, English origin, year of migration, first residence in New England, and a brief listing of the best primary and secondary sources available for each. For about 1,800 of the entries, the English origin (defined as the last known residence in England before migration) was known.
Shortly after this work was finished, but before the book had been printed, I led a Great Migration tour to England. We spent the bulk of our time in Hampshire and Wiltshire, visiting a number of places associated with the ministers Robert Parker and Stephen Bachiler, and the migrating families attached to these two men. This tour in mid-2015 was unlike early Great Migration tours in that we travelled to England as a group on the Queen Mary II. On most days during the cruise Brenton Simons and I each gave a morning lecture, and I used one of my talks to discuss known migrations from each English county. Assisted by Ginevra Morse, I created for this lecture a series of maps showing the concentrations of emigrants from each county.
During the talk I mentioned briefly that it had long been my dream to create an interactive online map to portray the migration process.
During the talk I mentioned briefly that it had long been my dream to create an interactive online map to portray the migration process. At the end of that talk, Peter Van Demark – NEHGS member, regular tour participant, and, most importantly for this purpose, professional computer cartographer – came up to me and said that if I was serious about such a map, he would be glad to work with me. And so a four-year project was born.
To create the desired map, we needed three elements: two databases and a user interface to connect them. I created a crude version of what we called the origins database, by abstracting from The Great Migration Directory the last name, first name, year of migration, English origin, and first New England residence for each of the 1,800 entries for which the English origin was known. The second database we required was an electronic file of county and parish boundaries for England. The most useful one we could find was a map of these boundaries as of about 1851, for which we quickly obtained a license. With some assistance from me, Peter was able to massage many of the boundaries and place names so that they reflected the England of about 1630. Finally, Peter and his colleague Giovanni Flammia built an interface that would allow users to query the databases by name or by parish.
The resulting application is now available through AmericanAncestors.org.
We hope this map will give you a more dynamic view of your ancestor’s migration and will also provide you with clues for further research. And I have no doubt that many of you will find uses for this application that we have not dreamed of. In time, we will be updating the origins table with new information, and adding other features that should make this an even more useful tool.
Awesome! Can’t wait to try it!
What a wonderful idea and project. I’m sure it will be exceedingly useful to many home and professional researchers. Thank you.
What a wonderful tool, Bob! Thank you for the providing the context. I look forward to using it.
Michael
Information into data into information! And updateable, also, yes? Great and thanks, especially to Peter. I was in need of a “contemporary” map of Bedfordshire, too! Thank you.
This is a wonderful resource! I would like to present my family tree in narrative form and interactive mapping. Is there a way I can use this function in my website?
What an awesome tool! I thoroughly enjoyed locating my ancestors’ information on the map. Thank you for developing such a worthwhile instrument.
This tour has been a highlight of my genealogy career. Thank you, Bob, and NEHGS for the research you have done on behalf of these early immigrants. The publications have aided my research more than you can know!
This is a wonderful resource for those who have ancestors within. I did not find my Roger Eastman, baptized at Downton, Wiltshire, in 1610 and traveling on the Ship Confidence in April 1838 from Southampton to the Massachusetts Bay colony. He was the servant of John Saunders, receiving land in the first division of Salisbury, MA, where he died in 1694.
Amazing! Another detective tool! Thanks to all. It’s exciting.
What fun! The map really helps to get a better view of how widespread across the counties my early New England ancestors were! And really how few from each location traveled together. This is a great addition to research tools!
I love maps! This is wonderful for finding my own ancestors and also makes a perfect companion to “Pilgrim Pedigrees.”
Thank you so much!
Lucinda Lamme
Incredibly useful, and fun, too. Thanks so much!
Very cool!
Love it! This will be very helpful in researching connections between immigrants.
Bravo! Thank you, Bob, and Peter Van Demark, your skilled and dedicated collaborator, for making this interactive online map available to us. I feel gratitude for the many hours it took to create this valuable and unique online resource.
Wow!! How wonderful. I will be very busy in this map. A great project!
Thank you so much for this tool! I am now actively planning a trip to England based on my Great Migration ancestors’ homes. I didn’t have the time to do this before as I research applicants for NSDAR but now it’s easy to draw up a list of places where my ancestors were born!
Love maps! Will have fun with this one. I am still wondering why no one has done more work on English origins of John PORTER of Hingham and Salem or John HUNTLEY of Boston and Old Lyme, CT.
Marcia I am trying to discover the English origins of John Porter (my 9th gr grandfather). I too am baffled but I’m running into deadend after deadend including coming up empty handed durng a visit to Dorchester, Dorset in 2015. But I’m not giving up! I would love it if I could team up with others in the effort. Any suggestions?
Marty Porter, Illinois