I've been busy with non-cyberspace matters-- and I've been delayed in joining others in thanking Wilson Brown for his very thorough & interesting review of the economic and religious factors behind the post-1660 emigration of settlers westward from CT(http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NJESSEX/2007-02/1171074719). MANY THANKS to Wilson. I have since reviewed some ancestral fan charts that were printed out relating to my great-grandfather Jonathan Ogden MAGIE, born in Elizabeth, Essex, NJ, on 28 Mar 1823 and died in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, on 30 Aug 1901. In the mid-1840s, Jonathan briefly joined several close Ogden relatives (formerly of Elizabeth) in Cincinnati, OH, before returning to Elizabeth and saying goodbye to his parents at their ca. 1790 house at 910 Magie Ave. (extant though sadly much transmogrified in the 1930s), and then moving permanently in early 1848 to Milwaukee. He reached Milwaukee via a series of new short railroad lines from Albany to Buffalo on Lake Erie, then traveled via one of the trans-Ohio canals back to Cincinnati, followed by steamboat travel along the Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers to the newly completed (late April 1848) Illinois & Michigan Canal linking the Illinois River to Lake Michigan (a rather roundabiout route!). And it was this tiny canal, sections of which still survive, that led directly to Chicago's emergence as a world class city. Initially Jonathan lived in Milwaukee with his uncle John Ogden (1801-1891), also an Elizabeth native and one of the very first Milwaukee settlers. In 1835, John had traveled all the way from NJ to WI via horseback (perhaps a more sensible transportation system). While Wilson indicates that Newark (NJ) was primarily settled by emigrants from what is now Connecticut, he also states what my family's ancestral fan charts clearly reaffirm--> that Elizabeth (NJ), as founded in 1664, was mostly a colony of the Hamptons-- at the eastern tip of Long Island. The Hamptons had reportedly been settled 1639-1640 mostly by Puritan immigrants from Salem & Lynn, MA (north of Boston)-- and were thus Puritan colonies, like later Newark & Elizabeth, NJ. The Hamptons had been claimed by the NY Dutch-- and also by the English-speaking colonies of New Haven and Hartford that were linked together as "Connecticut" in 1665 and that originally founded the Long Island Hamptons. But when the NY colony was transferred to the British in 1665, ALL of Long Island became permanently part of the New York. Even though the Hamptons were settled only some 25 years before Elizabeth, NJ, I see that most of my Elizabeth ancestors had origins, however brief, in the Hamptons. Also, some Dutch settlers seem to have been accepted as full members of the Long Island Hamptons settlements, e.g., four closely related ancestors of mine, all apparently born in the Netherlands--> Meriken MELYN (daughter of Cornelius), b. 1637 in Amsterdam, d. 1697 in Elizabeth, after moving there from East Hampton with her husband Matthias HATFIELD, b. 1640, d. 1687 at Elizabeth. Also Meriken's older sister Cornelia MELYN, b. 1628, who d. 1717 in East Hampton-- wife of Jacobus SCHELLINX, b. 1625, d. 1693, also in East Hampton. One thing I notice about Wilson's list of Newark surnames is that many are included in my family's genealogy database-- yet many are NOT. In contrast, relatively many more names in our database are buried in the Colonial Cemetery at Westfield, NJ (west of Elizabeth)-- even though I apparently have no direct ancestors who ever lived in Westfield. Thus my theory that much USA settlement has tended to follow rather rigid westward strips, with relatively little diagonal movement between strips. Thus the people of Syracuse and Milwaukee speak a rather similar version of English-- and quite different from the "English" spoken in, say, Savannah and Shreveport (in Dixie). Presumably my Hamptons ancestors gave away their eastern Long Island land for a song (or close to it) when they moved to Elizabeth in the 17th & 18th century. I sure wish at least one of them had figured out that I would be a descendant and had set aside just a little land there for me, even some inauspicious swamp land. Today that swamp land might be worth millions to land hungry 21st century billionaires needing more space in the Hamptons for lavish entertaining-- and I'd be able to sell that swamp land at a VERY nice profit ...............John (in metro Chicago) PPS (to Wilson mostly)-- a week ago or so I think I figured out which Phebe MEGIE in my family's database married (and reportedly mistreated!) YOUR relative George VAN NESS. I note in an online 1853 map of Morris County (http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/Morris/Morris_County1853_east.jpg) that there are a lot of Van Ness families in northeast Morris County. The Phebe Megie I have in mind was born soon after 1789 and grew up in southeast Morris County (not far from New Providence in present Union County) in the ca. 1785 home of her father Abraham Megie (see Rutgers map) that existed ca. 1915 and may still exist on the north side of East Madison Ave., near modern Pierson Lane-- in what used to be "Genungtown" and is now southern section of Florham Park. Abraham Megie and most of his children moved ca. 1857 to the east side of the Mississippi River, settling at Terre Haute, Henderson, IL-- though maybe not Phebe, who probably remained in NJ. She is a close relative of formerly obscure Lizzie J. Magie (1866-1948), born McComb, IL-- who has recently been much celebrated on the Internet (and thanks to a recent favorable US Supreme Court decision) as the true creator, ca. 1903, of Monopoly, the world's most popular board game-- and a favorite pastime of economist Rex Tugwell, 1891-1979 (Wilson's mentor?), one of FDR's Brain Trusters and a friend of my family. More on all this later. In the meantime, does anyone know whether the above MORRIS COUNTY home of Abraham MEGIE (probably built for his father Joseph) still exists?? ______________________________________________________________________ Subj: Re: [NJESSEX] CT to NJ Migration Date: 2/9/2007 7:38:22 P.M. CST From: wintereve@bellsouth.net Reply-to: njessex@rootsweb.com To: njessex@rootsweb.com Does anyone know why a large group of families left CT and moved to NJ in the early 1700's? Several of us were interested in the migration patterns of our families. Would appreciate the Lists' thoughts on the matter _____________________________________________________________________