Updated September 30, 2003

Friends and relatives often moved to a new land en masse, or cascaded in after early arrivals reported the opportunities afforded by the new lands.  In the Luther area, many of those who had homesteaded in the Unassigned Lands that had been opened by the Run of '89 were joined by friends and relatives when the Iowa Lands were opened in '91 or the Kickapoo Lands in '95.  

In some cases, even before I found their common roots I knew the relationship between the families and where each lived before moving to the Luther area.  For example: my COLE line previously lived between Sycamore and Neodesha KS, near the Montgomery-Wilson Co. line.  Allied families lived in or near Independence and Cherryvale, so I've set up a page for those who came from the Montgomery-Wilson Co. area.

In other cases, I have spotted clusters of families living near each other who share a general migration pattern.   For example: the SPIGINERs, on whose lands the cemetery was established, were surrounded by other families who came from Alabama.  By comparing cemetery, census, and land records, we have been able to establish some family relationships.  

Sometimes, those who had not known each other previously were drawn together in the new country by similar backgrounds. For example, a number of families originally from Bohemia settled in the Luther area -- but so far we have not been able to establish prior relationships between many of them.

As there are enough pages of other puzzle projects to merit separate posting, I'll add set up more categories, in the meantime some miscellaneous links may be helpful: