-----Original Message-----
From: .... On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] 

Anyone have a grasp on how fast our ancestors traveled? 

How far was a day's ride on horseback? By coach? Oxcart?? How far could one
walk or march? 
///////////////////////////////////

I don't recall seeing the above posting at VA-ROOTS so it may have been cross-posted.  However, a good question to which Paul Drake addressed so well.  The "Rate of Travel 1800" map at the following URL may also be of some help:

http://books.google.com/books?id=hUkqx76sF6oC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=map+%22rates+of+travel+1800%22&source=web&ots=CHzsHkpYhT&sig=q3cLd702UADWMBjjrn8CJfAcAcg#PPA84,M1  (page 84)

This 'map' was freely offered at a web site or two several years ago for ancestral research but I find from a Google search is now granted only with membership fee at ancestry.com, with its source not noted.  However, the source of this map is shown at bottom of the above-referenced web page, and the publishing info says: "pages displayed by permission" so copyright laws apparently still apply.  This seems to be typical of how ancestry.com 'picks up' all kinds of data and documents, then sells them to others.

I know nothing about the accuracy or methodology used here but someone undoubtedly spent some time developing this map, considering all of its loops and turns.  Roads were not improved greatly by 1800 so the time-lines for the mid-1700's should only need to be extended slightly. The beginning point of New York could likely be shifted to Philadelphia or further south, with the travel-lines ballooned around the new source, for approximating time from the revised point.  How the travel time over the roads (some roughly cut but at least cleared) along the eastern seaboard is much shorter than for going over the mountains can be readily understood.  However, our ancestors used water-ways to every extent possible which this map doesn't seem to display properly (or possibly its originators limited the scope to horse/wagon or hired coach travel?)  For example, travel from the Ft. Pitt (Pittsburgh) area to the present Maysville, KY area (leading further into KY or Northwest Territory) or on to Cincinnati and ultimately to the Vicksburg-New Orleans area during the late 1700's into the 1800's would have been via flatboat down the Allegheny or Monongahela Rivers to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, a much shorter travel time than via horse-wagon.  Ditto for other rivers such as the Tennessee and Cumberland.  Use of steam-boats beginning in 1813 had a big impact on such travel and development of the railroads by the mid-1800's even more.

At least this map may help to approximate the time our ancestors spent in migrating to various areas.  For example, those who disembarked at Philadelphia or another port on the Delaware Bay in 1750, their travel time along the Great Wagon Road to Virginia was probably only a week or so via horse/wagon, while travel over the mountains to Boonesborough (Wilderness Road) or to the Fort Pitt area (Braddock's or Forbes' Roads) required substantially more time.  For men on horseback the time was less, but allowances should be made for those who were traveling with children and animals that required walking the entire distance -- and horses needed rest along the way as did people not to mention stops to hunt and prepare food or for illnesses and other mishaps.  Some had no horse or wagon, they carried or 'carted' what little they had.  So we need to be careful with our approximations and allowances.

Hope this helps a little,
Neil McDonald

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