It’s not only geese that migrate in their famous “V” formations.

Our ancestors migrated, too, and from here to there and back again, over and over and over. Consider most of that early traveling meant walking, it’s a good think you and I weren’t born pioneers. (Well, me anyway.)

Pamela Sayre followed up her husband, Rick’s, presentation on Mapping the West by teaching us at the Montana State Genealogical Society’s 2018 conference in Great Falls about the various trails.

Missouri was a “jumping-off” place for travel west in the 1800s….. perhaps the reason why was the folks or immigrants could come upstream on the Mississippi, overland to the Missouri, and then strike out west on foot. This would include the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Butterfield Trail, and the Pony Express.

If you think, or know, your ancestor traveled on a westward-heading trail, there are many references and resources available to you online. Go for it!