I've always been fond of wide open spaces. I especially like being on the prairie or driving through the flat lands of Illinois and Iowa, where you can see for miles and miles. Was that something passed down to me from my ancestors?
The U.S. side of my family started out in North Carolina and Virginia. They kept moving west, into Kentucky, Tennessee, and finally into Illinois. Were they searching for wide open spaces? Did they make their moves when things got too crowded or more land was needed? What brought them west? And why did the majority of them stop before they crossed the Mississippi River?
The other group of ancestors, those who came over the ocean from eastern Europe, England, and Scotland, were also in search of something. Were they also searching for wide open spaces, or were they just looking for better opportunities? Some of them did make it across the Mississippi - but just barely into Iowa.
So I'm left wondering -- what were they in search of when they packed up their families and made the hard journeys by wagon, by foot, or by boat? Most ended up in towns of varying sizes or big cities like Chicago. Were they content where they ended up, or did they dream at night of wide open spaces??
This week's #52Ancestors prompt was Wide Open Spaces.
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