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The Great Migration
What was the great migration?
What Was The Great Migration?
The term “Great Migration” refers to several different periods where
there were significant and important historical movements of people.
From 1620 to 1640, the Great Migration of Puritans saw many
Puritans move from England to New England, primarily settling in
Massachusetts.
Another Great Migration occurred between 1910 to the 1970s where
approximately six million African-Americans moved out of the
southern states to avoid racial violence and prejudice. To learn more
about this period, visit our African American history section.
Map My Cousins: The Great Migration And Your
Family
One way to appreciate the historical significance of these migrations
is to see how it impacted your family. This is where Map My Cousins
comes in, which is a free tool that allows you to see where your
ancestors lived on a world map. Utilizing the following reference
sites, you can see where your family was living at the time of these
migrations (and where they moved to):
For the Great Migration of Puritans, you can learn more by visiting:
•
The American Ancestors Site, hosted by the New England
Historic Genealogical Society
•
The Great Migration Parish Map
For
the
Great
Migration
of
African
Americans,
you
can
find
out
more in our
African American History
section.
Map My Cousins
If your family was part of the Great Migration, you can use Map My
Cousins to see how your families migrations aligned with the
primary movements during the same time period. Map My
Cousins is a unique application that allows you to see information
about where your family came from on a world map, with several
different types of maps to chose from.
With Map My Cousins, you can:
•
See all major events from your family tree on a world map
including: births, residence, immigration, burial & more.
•
FamilySearch Integration: Load your family tree directly from
FamilySearch, including the locations you’ve recorded for their births,
residence, burial and more.
•
Get to know the area your family lived: Search for & explore
nearby addresses, points of interest, cities.
•
Drill down into regions, towns, neighborhoods and streets:
Discover points of interest near where your family lived.
•
Find organizations that can help with your genealogy
research including: local / regional government offices & churches
that may have vital records or knowledge of the area, local genealogy
organizations and translators.
•
Browse historic maps From any map, browse a collection of
historic maps or click on a family marker in the Migration Map By
Generation to jump to a specific location in a historic map
•
Works off of the data already in your favorite family tree
software.
Documenting Your Family Story: Sharing
Historic Events Through Your Familys Eyes
There is a lot more to your family story than what appears on a
family tree or on a map. Documenting how historic events
impacted your family can often only be told by putting pen to paper
and writing your family story. To help start you on this this journey,
you should first read our Article: “Telling Your Family Story”. This
includes writing tips and pointers on how to develop the content.
Here are a few questions you can ask your family members to
understand the impacts of major historical events through first hand
accounts:
1)
Where were your parents and grandparents born?
2)
If they lived in the south, how did racism impact their lives?
3)
If they moved out of the south, how did they pick where they
were moving to?
a)
How did they get there?
b)
Did they find racism to be less extensive and pervasive in
their new homes?
4)
How can I learn more about cousins of my generation, what
they do, where they live?