I know there are some folks on the list who have read a great deal about the migrations from the above states to Rowan NC. I would like to get a better picture of how this took place. I am always curious about how people who lived so far apart from each other met and married in Old Rowan Co. When a wagon train was organized to go south from say PA did only PA residents travel on that particular trip. Did they pick up other families as they travel thru other states? If a wagon train left PA would it have gone thru MD and DE to get to NC? Thanks to anyone who can help. GerriAnn GerriAnn Lockman [email protected] Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

GerriAnn, I don't think there were "wagon trains" coming down to NC like were organized to move to the western states, California, Oregon etc. Of course there were people traveling in groups at times and as history tells us, the people moving south from Pa came down the Valley of Virginia and very likely families in Virginia joined them. No, wagon trains did not pass through DE or Maryland (just a narrow neck of Md.) to get to NC. The earliest settlers (before 1740-50) coming from eastern Pa to NC came through a narrow neck of Maryland, down through the Northern Neck of Va. and south of the Blue Ridge Mountain. The later ones traveled down the Valley of VA and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountain at Bedford, Va. or Salem, Va., the mountain was easy to cross at those two places. The Great Wagon Road crossed at Salem, Va. down through Rocky Mount, Va., Martinsville, Va. into NC. Many families knew each other in northern Va. , Pa and Md before they moved south, even if they didn't move together. G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.