A quick scan of the Early American Roads and Trails page will reveal a glimpse of a valuable resource for tracing your ancestral families’ migration through time and place.

It would be interesting to start with an immigrant ancestor and follow your direct line of descent, noting on a map all of the significant dates/places of births, marriages, deaths, etc. to show how you got here from there.

Then connect the dots and determine the routes they took along the way and the modes of travel available to them, the hardships they endured, the dangers they braved, etc. I’m finding lots of books, diaries, etc. that were written about these journeys through the wilderness and waterways. They truly were pioneers.