This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/jUB.2ACI/1103.1 Message Board Post: Roland, Not sure what qualifies with "upstate New York" but: From the diary of Cynthia Hutchinson Norton from Middle Island, Suffolk Co., NY: "April 3 [1810] --Vendue of Joel Swezey attended. They are going to move to the new country. " "Vendue" means "auction". The next time I find Joel, he is in Cayuga Co NY, so I assume that is the "new country" referred to in the diary. One guess is that as fathers died, their sons (usually) ended up with smaller plots of land to farm. After Joel died in Steuben Co NY in 1844, his land was divided among his five sons. Two of his sons moved west in the mid-1850s to the later "new country" in Iowa. Diane