you are so right Donna -- we didn't then nor do we now all fit in the same peg hole. ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike & Donna OBrien To: tnmarion@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:28 PM Subject: Re: [TNMARION] messages Just putting in my 2 cents here on migration, etc. We have some stories that were handed down from one of my Grundy Co. relatives. She talks about her life growing up before and during the Civil War years. One of the things she mentioned was that "town" was a place full of sinful, worldly things. The women rarely went to town -- it was usually the men who went and bought the things they needed. She talks about one of the few times she ever went to town when the new railroad came through there. She mentions that the menfolk would go off for months at a time getting work and the family would stay behind because it cost too much to move them all. Especially the men that were loggers -- they moved about quite a bit looking for work. I really believed that the migration patterns followed a certain pattern like Bill suggested, but I also think there were lots of various individual reasons for moving from one place to another too. One of the stories that my ancestor related was how her cousins moved out west with the intention of getting to Texas. By the time they reached western Missouri, they had lost a baby and an older child to some illness. When her husband said it was time to move on, the wife said she was staying put and wouldn't move anymore. They are buried in Missouri and never made it to Texas. I guess my point is that, while there were "norms" of migration, you can never assume anything in your research. The documents will tell you where they went, but the "why" is not always apparent. Like Bill said, those trial transcripts are a wonderful tool because they give us an insight into how the society thought at the time. Donna macbetty2@peoplepc.com wrote: Mac and I were discussing this and he stated also a lot them came south because Chattanooga was the only industrial city for that time. He was saying that a lot , even in the 40's and 50's lived in a boarding house in Chattanooga during the week and came home to Marion and Franklin counties on the weekend . I asked why not just move the whole family to Chattanooga-- He was telling me how dirty the air was in Chattanooga was one reason ,and I assume that they owned property in the other counties as well, but just couldn't make a living from farming, logging or moonshining. Oh yes I am positive none of our ancestors would have ever been moonshiners LOL yea right --LOL It seems a long way to travel by the means available to them in those days for a short stay though. Was there a railroad for passengers that ran from Chattanooga to Marion and Franklin counties? It just seems odd that so many would come from the northern counties down to the most southern. As I know in the 1830's and 1840's era there were a lot that went to Ill. from Al and Tn because of the free land-- then it seems to have reversed it's self. I am aware the Civil War was part of the reason . The social aspect is indeed very interesting, especially when a lot of them were so remote. Odd, but what we conceive to be true is what we saw in the movies when we were kids too and this is definately not necessarily so. Such movies as the infamous Scarlet O'Hara is one example. A lot of them were very clannish type and wanted to be left alone, as you stated too. The country they came from had dictatorship type rulers and they were not all that happy with the Government that was formed here either-- trust was a big factor . I know the winters are a lot colder the further north you go and the growing season is not nearly as long either. The water in the west was another reason it was undeveloped any where but along the streams and rivers. For that matter it was a factor for anywhere. Sorry if this was rambling but was also doing a lot of thinking out loud too. uhmm????? Any one else have an opinion or facts to contribute? ----- Original Message ----- From: bill To: tnmarion@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:00 AM Subject: [TNMARION] messages Betty, I seem to be back to receiving only some of the messages posted to the list so if I don't respond you'll know why. I didn't get the one where you asked about migration. About 90% or more migration in the US for the first 200-300 years was from north to south and east to west. Very rarely will you find someone moving the other direction. I have always assumed that people were migrating towards lesser populated areas and therefor more readily available land. Over 90% of the people were farmers back then and were always looking for good cheap(and sometimes free) land. Also it seems that many people back then had an aversion to highly populated areas for whatever reason - just wanted to be left alone I guess. There were several aspects of that trial testimony that were very interesting I thought. One of them was the social "rules" that they lived by. I noticed that a couple of times it was mentioned that whites and blacks socialized much more before the civil war than afterwards when it became practically illegal partly due to the Jim Crow laws. So in that one aspect the war set the country backward in a social sense. I also picked up on something that I had seen before doing genealogy research and that was that many of the former slaves were still living on the property owned by the former "master" and now were tenant farmers. Wonder if their lives were really much different? I knew tenant farmers of both races when I was a child and although they were all technically free, practically speaking they weren't as their choices in life were severally limited. Also it was interesting how people's memories of someone, how they looked and what they did could vary so much. Probably tells you more about the witness than it does about the person they were describing. Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE NOTE: This list is for queries and replies, comments, requests for help, and other genealogical related information that is of interest to researchers having a connection or a possible connection to Marion County, Tennessee. There is no soliciting or advertising of any item or service for sale allowed. Betty McBee - list administrator-- macbetty2@peoplepc.com Marion County Web Site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmario2/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TNMARION-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE NOTE: This list is for queries and replies, comments, requests for help, and other genealogical related information that is of interest to researchers having a connection or a possible connection to Marion County, Tennessee. There is no soliciting or advertising of any item or service for sale allowed. Betty McBee - list administrator-- macbetty2@peoplepc.com Marion County Web Site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmario2/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TNMARION-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE NOTE: This list is for queries and replies, comments, requests for help, and other genealogical related information that is of interest to researchers having a connection or a possible connection to Marion County, Tennessee. There is no soliciting or advertising of any item or service for sale allowed. Betty McBee - list administrator-- macbetty2@peoplepc.com Marion County Web Site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmario2/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TNMARION-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message