Does anyone know which route families who left Sussex County, New Jersey traveled via to arrive at Niagara in the 1780's and 1790's. Western New York was pretty much a wilderness and there were no roads. Did they cross the mountains to the Wyoming Valley (present Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania area) and up the Susquehanna River and then the Chemung River Valley into western New York. Any ideas? J. Kelsey Jones

from http://www.ukans.edu/heritage/cousin/abesmith.html "In the winter of 1786-1787 (with the consent of Revolutionary New Jersey) a large convoy (46 families) of United Empire Loyalist (UEL) refugees was being organized at Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey. Almost all the members of this loyalist refugee convoy came from Sussex County, New Jersey, itself... March 1787 the refugee convoy took off north for Niagara via Indian Trails through the wilderness -- From Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey to the Finger Lake district of New York. Then they turned west toward Niagara near present Syracuse, New York... When the refugee column reached the Niagara River in the summer of 1787, about half the families were ferried across from Fort Niagara to Newark (Niagara on Lake Ontario, North or Lower end of the river) and half were ferried across from Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie (South or Upper end of the river)." Robin -----Original Message----- From: montrose [mailto:montrose@ptdprolog.net] Sent: August 25, 2000 8:53 PM To: NJSUSSEX-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NJSUSSEX-L] migration to Canada Does anyone know which route families who left Sussex County, New Jersey traveled via to arrive at Niagara in the 1780's and 1790's. Western New York was pretty much a wilderness and there were no roads. Did they cross the mountains to the Wyoming Valley (present Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania area) and up the Susquehanna River and then the Chemung River Valley into western New York. Any ideas? J. Kelsey Jones