Sessions

Eleanor Brinsko will present “Westward Ho: Migrations Methods of the United States” — Family history researchers of non-Indigenous peoples focus on how their ancestors arrived on American soil, but how did they get to their chosen place of settlement? Was it intentional or a coincidence? What modes of transportation were available? This presentation focuses on the people who have called the land called America “home” and the methods they chose to migrate across the country.

Annette Burke Lyttle will present “How Advertising Brought Our Ancestors to the Midwest” — Business owners, land speculators, and communities wishing to grow all turned to various forms of advertising to entice people to migrate to the Midwestern territories and states. This presentation will examine how newspaper advertising, pamphlets, gazetteers, and books were aimed at prospective migrants from the eastern parts of the U.S. and prospective immigrants from Europe to get them to come and work, buy land, and settle in these sparsely-populated frontier areas.  We’ll look at what kinds of messages these ads used in order to make hard work and pioneer living seem attractive.

As well as “The National Road: America’s First Federal Highway” — Built between 1811 and 1837, the National Road was the first federally-funded highway in America. Extending from Maryland to the frontier of Illinois, this migration route allowed thousands of people to settle in the Midwest.

Speaker Details

Eleanor Brinsko is a genealogist who does European-American genealogy by looking at genealogical and social trends on both sides of the Atlantic. Eleanor has given lectures for the Wisconsin Historical Society and public libraries, genealogical societies, and family reunions around the United States. She taught a graduate-level course on genealogy at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s iSchool and is also a contributor to the show “PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.”

Annette Burke Lyttle, CG® owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the international, national, state, and local levels and loves helping people uncover and share their family stories. Annette is a course coordinator for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the British Institute. She is a published writer whose research interests include Quaker ancestors and ancestral migrations in the US. She is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and editor of The Florida Genealogist.