Patrick McGough, Jr. went west in 1851 to be part of the California Gold Rush. ( He was home soon!) What was the route these Oneida Co. men would take to get to California? Panama? Deanna

On Thursday 06 December 2007 18:41, Deanna Smith wrote: > Patrick McGough, Jr. went west in 1851 to be part of the California Gold > Rush. ( He was home soon!) > > What was the route these Oneida Co. men would take to get to California? > Panama? > > Deanna > I have several mentions of members of my ancestors family members moving to the state of California and Washington from Essex and Clinton Counties, near the Canadian border - I think in the range of late 1850's to 1880's. I never really looked into the particulars, but always asssumed that they took the St. Lawrence as far as the Great Lakes. From Oneida County, the Erie Canal would have been an option. Does anyone know of canal passenger lists? From the Great Lakes it would be possible to get to a wagon train departure points that Larry mentions. Ship travel to the port of New Orleans would have been a possibility. Directly to California around CapeHorn might have been possible, but I think it would have been a difficult voyage. The Castle Garden website (http://www/castlegardens.com) seems to only list arrivals to New York. As you mention Patrick McGough's early return, it's worth a try. My quick check returned several Patrick McGough's in the early 1850's. but they all seem to originate in Ireland or Great Britain. I suspect the name 'McGough' has variant spellings. I got hits on 'McGough' and 'Mc Gough' which is a trivial typographical difference, but it makes a difference to the search engine. Hope this helps, Mike

Thank you for the probabilities regarding travel to Calif. for the Gold Rush. Travel in that time period was challenging enough. Just imagine the way they did it! As for my Patrick McGough. He was born in Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, Ire. I have studied his life for many years, right up to me. I'm hoping to go to Ireland this coming spring to Co. Monaghan. Deanna ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael J. McDonald" <m.mcdonald@computer.org> To: <nyoneida@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 1:39 PM Subject: Re: [NYONEIDA] Gold Rush > On Thursday 06 December 2007 18:41, Deanna Smith wrote: >> Patrick McGough, Jr. went west in 1851 to be part of the California Gold >> Rush. ( He was home soon!) >> >> What was the route these Oneida Co. men would take to get to California? >> Panama? >> >> Deanna >> > I have several mentions of members of my ancestors family members moving to > the state of California and Washington from Essex and Clinton Counties, near > the Canadian border - I think in the range of late 1850's to 1880's. I never > really looked into the particulars, but always asssumed that they took the > St. Lawrence as far as the Great Lakes. From Oneida County, the Erie Canal > would have been an option. Does anyone know of canal passenger lists? From > the Great Lakes it would be possible to get to a wagon train departure points > that Larry mentions. Ship travel to the port of New Orleans would have been a > possibility. Directly to California around CapeHorn might have been possible, > but I think it would have been a difficult voyage. > The Castle Garden website (http://www/castlegardens.com) seems to only list > arrivals to New York. As you mention Patrick McGough's early return, it's > worth a try. My quick check returned several Patrick McGough's in the early > 1850's. but they all seem to originate in Ireland or Great Britain. I suspect > the name 'McGough' has variant spellings. I got hits on 'McGough' and 'Mc > Gough' > which is a trivial typographical difference, but it makes a difference to the > search engine. > > Hope this helps, > Mike > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYONEIDA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >