From Sea to Shining Sea

#52ancestors
No. 22—May 28-June 3
So Far Away: From Sea to Shining Sea
By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018


 If you want to hear experienced genealogists chuckle, just comment that “Our ancestors did not move much in the old days.” Then prepare to hear dozens of stories about their roaming ancestors. 

While I was aware of the various migrations paths that my early American families followed, especially in Colonial times, what surprised me most was how fast they left the East Coast and headed west. It was like they had an itch to travel. 

Some of them didn’t even wait for the Revolutionary War to end before they headed off to greener pastures in Tennessee. From there, it was a hop, skip and jump to the heartland of America — Missouri — where some of my family were before 1820. Then it took only a couple more decades and they were on the West Coast, in Oregon, Washington and California. 

My 3g-grandfather, William Vanderpool (1808-1884), was born in the northwest corner of North Carolina and died in the Cherokee Nation in 1884. If he had made the trip — as the crow flies — it would have been about 1,285 miles. But, William zig-zagged his way to the Indian Territory and in the process accrued about 2,100 miles — and it took him 56 years to do so. 

He married his first wife in 1828 in Tennessee, moved back to North Carolina, then on to Indiana, down to Kentucky, off to Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas; back to Missouri, down to Arkansas, and finally over to Indian Territory. That’s excluding a few moves back and forth between Missouri and Arkansas. 

He had 19 children by two wives and 17 of his children grew to adulthood. He moved so often that I found him twice in the 1850 census. 

His occupations, other than moving and producing children, included Missouri State legislator, a farrier for the Union Army, postmaster, blacksmith, a grist mill operator, an intruder, and a farmer. 

As might be expected, he had no moss on him, anywhere.