Hi Pat. I'm afraid the way I read the map notes, "R.R. chartered & proposed" in brown, it appears that the R.R. was still in the planning stages in 1839. The best source I know of for this type info is; AUTHOR Southerland, Henry deLeon. TITLE The Federal Road through Georgia, the Creek Nation, and Alabama, 1806-1836 / Henry deLeon Southerland, Jr., and Jerry Elijah Brown ; maps by Charles Jefferson Hiers. PUBLISHER Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1989. The Federal Road was the earliest road into the area fit for wagons and was the main route. It was guarded and had forts along it. It ran a similar route to the railroad into Montgomery and beyond. I saw this one when I searched for the ciatation above. I haven't seen the book but it looks interesting also. TITLE The very worst road : travellers' accounts of crossing Alabama's Old Creek Indian territory, 1820-1847 / compiled by Jeffrey C. Benton. PUBLISHER Eufaula, AL : Historic Chattahoochee Commission of Alabama and Georgia, 1998. DESC xii, 157 p. : ill., map ; 22 cm. At 03:12 PM 4/16/00 -0500, you wrote: >Hello list -- >I have spent quite a bit of time wondering how my Billingsley ancestors >(Clement and Cynthia/Rebecca), with their many, many children of several >generations, migrated from Stafford Co., Virginia, to Autauga Co., Alabama, >in the early 1830s. At my most romantic, I pictured them traveling in >wagons and walking, over a number of years. I especially wondered how the >women handled the feeding, clothing, and cleaning of their families (since I >assume they had primary responsibility for those tasks). > >Well, through a wonderful map a person on the Cuba list discovered, I've >just learned that, according to an 1839 map, the Georgia railroad connected >Stafford Co. to Montgomery, AL. So, it seems quite possible that the whole >passel of them trekked to Alabama by train! > >Does anyone have good information on the usual forms of migration from the >mid-Atlantic states to Alabama in the 1830s (motivated in part, I assume, by >the availability of land)? > >Here's the link for the map, at the Library of Congress "American Memory >page: > >http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html > >At the home page, click "Collection Finder," then "Maps" from the right-hand >menu. Scroll down and click "Railroad maps, 1828-1900," then "Browse by >Geographic Location," then "Southern States," then "United States - Southern >States [1839]." Other selections back at the "Maps" page also have >interesting maps. > >Pat, in Texas > > > David Dennis, dddennis@concentric.net, UsGebWeb webpage for Lincoln Co., Ga + Chilton Co., Al, and Rootsweb mailing list owner for them and the SWORDS-L lists, among other things.