Hi everyone. According to Civil War records, my ancestor was born in 1837 in "Mt. Pleasant, Canada". There are several, but there is one near Brantford, Brant County, Ontario which seems likely. In 1850 the family is found in Town of Barre, Orleans County, New York. Then in 1860 they are found residing in Conneaut, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Does anyone know of or can help speculate why a family whose patriarch was born in NY, then briefly in 1837 crossed the boarder to Canada only to come back again to NY? I don't know of any family members who may have been in that part of Canada at that time. Boarder changes? Records are few and precious. The surname is VanBUREN. Also, in 1850 the patriarch is listed as a Laborer. Was there a distinction between Farm Laborer and Laborer at that time? In that area what would he likely have been doing as a laborer? Thanks for any tidbits. Donna

Hi Donna, Even today, the Canadian/US border in upstate NY is porous. Lots of people work in one country but live in the other, crossing the bridges to commute. I also have ancestors who crossed back and forth. There are several reasons for this: 1)Jobs. This is the big one that I've found. Our ancestors moved to where there was work, particularly if they were not skilled in one profession. As a laborer, your ancestor probably just did whatever he could to support his family. If the work was nearby in Canada, they went there. If the work was in NY, they were on the US side. The year 1837 was near the building/heyday of the Erie Canal, and your ancestor could have worked on the canal as it required a lot of men and jobs were plentiful. Given that they basically hand-dug a lot of it, if you could wield a shovel and show up for work, you could be hired. 2)Immigration incentive. During the early years in Canada, there were various incentives given by the British government to entice settlement. During the Irish Potato Famine for example (about 1840-1850), subsidized fares on ships could be had for those willing to move to Canada. A lot of our ancestors then traveled from Canada to the US. In my families' case, several stayed in Canada because they found enough work. Moving is hard and uncertain, no matter when you do it, so often people opted for the bird in the hand. Because your ancestors may have had relatives or friends in Canada, they may have moved back and forth when times got tough, or better opportunities existed in one place or the other. 3)"Overcrowding." As one author put it, "We will never really understand our ancestors whose nearest neighbor was 12 miles away, and who moved because he felt crowded." There was a collective urge to move in the US starting around this time. The Erie Canal opened the West (W. NY, PA, Mich, Wisc). The Oregon Trail would start in earnest in the early 1840s, etc. Your ancestors could have been swept up in this mania. In addition, there was frequent traveling already in Upstate NY. I recently met a Univ. of Buffalo professor who is studying the quarrymen of the region. Evidentially, when they went to build the Canal, they used quarrymen from England (Yorkshire & Derbyshire regions) who were considered masters of their craft at the time. These quarrymen would work in NY & Canada during the spring/summer/fall and travel back to England for the harsh winter when work was scarce. Our original snowbirds! I would suggest contacting the Genealogical Society in the areas that you are looking for and seeing if some one could do a look up for you in the directories at that time. I am also looking for several ancestors with the same problem and this has been helpful (I'm only missing about 10 years & a date of death now). Also, Laborer could mean both farm or manual, industrial labor. It really depended more on the census taker and his careful notation than on anything else. Dina Scheel http://scheelgenealogy.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of D.C. Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 9:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [NYORLEAN] NY>Canada> NY migration question - VanBUREN Hi everyone. According to Civil War records, my ancestor was born in 1837 in "Mt. Pleasant, Canada". There are several, but there is one near Brantford, Brant County, Ontario which seems likely. In 1850 the family is found in Town of Barre, Orleans County, New York. Then in 1860 they are found residing in Conneaut, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Does anyone know of or can help speculate why a family whose patriarch was born in NY, then briefly in 1837 crossed the boarder to Canada only to come back again to NY? I don't know of any family members who may have been in that part of Canada at that time. Boarder changes? Records are few and precious. The surname is VanBUREN. Also, in 1850 the patriarch is listed as a Laborer. Was there a distinction between Farm Laborer and Laborer at that time? In that area what would he likely have been doing as a laborer? Thanks for any tidbits. Donna ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Dina. Thank you so much for your reply and great information. [This family did eventually find itself in Michigan and four brothers fought in the Civil War there.] I often wondered about the canal because this family moved from NY to PA and along that route by Lake Erie. Finding this type of information is one where I probably need to read lots of books about life at that time to really come to a firm conclusion. Thanks again for the time you put in to your response. Very much appreciated!! Donna Michigan