>I am working on a theory that my ancestral family may have "sailed" up the Potomac and gone overland to the Monongahela River and then down the Ohio.  This would have been about 1784-1792.
>
>Can someone tell me (during that time period):
>1.     how far up the Potomac they could have gotten before having to go overland?
>2.     how far up the Monongahela they could have put in to the water?  
>3.     where I might get further information on this?
>
>They owned next to nothing so a boat could have been small.


-Great Falls in the Potomac would have been a serious obstacle so they would have
had to launch above that and the rocks at Harper's Ferry are another blockage point.
It would have had to be some sort of flat bottomed boat to carry their goods and
small enough to be portaged around rough sections of the river.  The Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal didn't open till 1831 so they couldn't have used that means.

You should look at 'George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps' by
Barnet Scheter, published Nov. 2010 by Walker and Co. for an overview of the 
transportation net in the 1750s-60s to get an idea of the terrain, rivers, settlements, 
etc. in the areas you are interested in.


John Garrett

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html