Last week the genealogy world was all about sharing their Ancestor Birthplace Charts. It started with J. Paul Hawthorne on his Facebook page. It quickly went viral and the charts were popping up on Facebook and genealogy blogs.
What most impressed me about the charts I was seeing is the visual migration pattern that is created. Since each place is assigned a different color, the migration pattern is a completely different representation then I have ever seen.
I played with my chart all weekend to find a color pattern I enjoyed. This morning I decided I needed to do a chart for my children to show how different their story is from mine. My husband’s family has a very different migration story than my own. I love the results. I plan on printing these charts to hang in my office.
My family has definitely participated in populating the West. As you can see every couple of generations, the family continued across the United States. An interesting note to add to this story is my niece and nephew were born in Virginia. The migration continues….
My kids have a different view in their chart because of my husband’s family. I was shocked to see how many generations have been born in California. My kids have some deep roots back to the mid 1800’s in this state!
This spurred me to looking at the dates of admission for statehood for each state on the chart. I knew California was admitted in 1850. I was surprised to see Kansas was not an “official” state until 1861. My ancestors formally claimed land in Kansas in 1853 as soon as the territory was up for grabs. Just another reminder to always look at historical events to see how they shaped the lives of your ancestors!
I would be interested in doing this exercise again but in a different format. I would like to see a circle chart with my kids in the middle that was color coded in the same manner. I think it would be much easier to add additional generations to a circle chart.
