Go Back Young Man. Go Back.

The dominant theme of migration in the United States during the nineteenth century was movement into unsettled regions. That meant largely movement to the West. Areas of the South provided a flow north to the Northwestern Territory. As territory east of the Mississippi filled up, the major flow of immigrants was westward. However, population movement is never a one-way street. There have been estimates that fully one third of all immigrants who passed through Ellis Island returned to Europe, a fact that has been particularly reported regarding the twentieth century Italian immigration.
The proportion of returnees was probably never that high among Americans in the nineteenth century. But whether for reasons involvement family, economics, or perhaps Indian warfare, there were always people moving against the flow. In the early days of Jefferson County, a number of families, including Demarees, McKays, and Lanhams, fled to Kentucky during the Indian troubles of 1811 and 1812, although most returned to Indiana.
Let’s face it. In the days of sailing ships and horse-drawn transportation, a major relocation may have meant never seeing your birthplace or your family again. At best, moving across the Appalachians might mean seeing family members a handful of times. Although so many families moved in large clans, there were also some left behind. There must have been a lot of homesick people who decided to pack it in when faced with personal calamities.
The census gives evidence of the returnees, although first-hand testimony as to the reason for reverse migration is hard to product. My grandfather, John Hopper 1903-1996 of Shelby Township, Jefferson County, said he was told that members of the Caledonia Scottish settlement moved to the area around Acton, Ind., but returned because they did not like the swampy conditions. (Acton is in Marion County, very near the border with Shelby County.) While none of the Scots who returned to Southeastern Indiana have been identified, there are others from the North Carolinian families of Milton Township who can be pinpointed. For example, Stovall Wilkins (1806-1889) who married his wife in 1828 in Jefferson County, moved on to Moral Township in Shelby County with his parents and brothers about 1833, but returned to Jefferson County around 1840.
There are other migrants to Shelby County who returned to the Switzerland/Jefferson County area. These include Robert McKay, born ca. 1792, son of Rev. War soldier Robert McKay and Lydia Leith. Robert’s brothers William, John, and David would all purchase land in Shelby County in the 1820s and would occupy it briefly, if at all in the case of John and William, before their families moved back south.
It’s easier to document families that moved to different states and returned, as opposed to those who simply moved within the state. The 1860 Jefferson County census shows clear evidence that the move west produced a flow in the opposite direction, particularly those who moved to Illinois and Iowa.
The 1860 census shows at least 20 families in Jefferson County that had children that were younger than nine years old and who were born in those two states The clear implication is that the returnees reflect a substantial movement of people who left Indiana after 1850, but were back home again within ten years. Some of these can be documented. Isora Hankins (1858-1943) was born in Richland County, Illinois, on 3 Dec. 1858, according to her obituary. Her parents, William and Eliza Vernon Hankins, moved to Illinois after they marred on 22 Jan. 1858 in Jefferson County. William’s father Joseph Hankins 1813-1862 moved to Illinois, but after his death, Joseph’s widow Nancy and most of their children, including William, returned to Milton Township.
The movement to Illinois and Iowa at this time was not limited to Jefferson County residents from any one area. The 1860 census shows the returnees spread fairly evenly through the county. (Well actually, it’s weighted a bit to the western part of the county). For example, in Hanover Township, the 1860 census shows six families with children under the age of ten who had been born in Illinois, two families with children under ten born in Iowa, one family with a young child born in Arkansas and another similarly aged born in Wisconsin.
The reasons? The case of the Hankins provides one example, the death of the breadwinner, Joseph Hankins seems clearly responsible for that families return. In those days where there were few public assistance programs, people in need turned to their families. Was it economic hardships? A severe winter? Life on the prairie was tough at anytime and before 1860, Indians were still a threat. However, I cannot correlate a major Indian war to this group of returning Hawkeyes.
There are a few lessons here for genealogists. A major one is that not everyone went with the flow. You always need to play the averages, but be alert for exceptions. The other major lesson is to be alert to patterns of migration. People going against the grain, were still on the same road. There are reasons why they left and reasons why they returned to the places they returned to.
You should also pay attention to what the census is saying about your family if you see children with unexpected birth places. Not everyone moved west and not everyone came back. In the case of the Joseph Hankins family, the father died in Illinois, but the mother returned to Indiana and died in Jefferson County. Two sons stayed in Illinois, the others returned in Indiana. So, anyone researching such lines needs to be open to finding the different parts of the family scattered along the way west.

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