Thank you to all for ideas and answers to this question. Just to share some of those answers: 1. There was only so much land in a family to be divided between children 2. Since rotation of crops was not yet a standard practice, soil became depleted and new farm land had to be found that in turn caused a need for clearing trees, and building houses and so the lumber mills moved in many times bringing employees with them and creating new jobs in an area 3. Several towns in NC such as Roanoke Rapids and Tarboro were busy port towns on main river heads, etc and thus drew people to their area from VA and other states. 4, A lot of NC had rich soil good for growing the crops of tobacco and cotton that many VA farmers grew. My George Acrile Savage grew cotton. His father was a lumber merchant. 5. Joining family that moved to NC in earlier years 6. For the Scots and Scots-Irish, moving to a climate and terrain that was more like their native land. 7. Beginning in the early 1700's, the Roanoke River and fertile land around the river drew colonists interested in large-scale agriculture and the trade that went along with it. By 1760, Halifax was hopping with warehouses, inns and taverns. It was also a political center, with the Provincial Congress meeting there in April 1776 and again later that year. Thanks again, Audrey