Reviews for A Scattered People: An American Family Moves West

The average rating for A Scattered People: An American Family Moves West based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-14 00:00:00 Michael Hardesty A meticulously researched, well organized, and thoughtfully presented history of the migration of interlinked families to the expanding western areas of our developing country. I enjoy reading historical nonfiction. This book had some connections to my home town and surrounding areas in CT, MA & NY state that made it all the more appealing to me. The detail was amazing- I felt like I was inside the homes of these people, traveling with them as pioneers, and settling into new lands with them. I have an inquisitive mind for small details and was not disappointed in my desire to know as much as possible about these families- how they lived and what they experienced- right down to how much silver plate they owned, or didn't own! I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the past in Mr. McFarland's book and was reluctant to return to modern life!

Review # 2 was written on 2014-11-27 00:00:00 Brian Ashworth McFarland is a professor of American history at UMass with several volumes on 19th century political history to his credit, but here he turns his attention to a subject much closer to home: The migration of his mother's family from the east coast just after 1800 to the west coast c.1900. The various lines began in western Connecticut and in Rensselaer, New York, and in western Virginia and North Carolina, and they followed the paths trod by many thousands of frontier families (including most of my own lines), along the lower margin of the Great Lakes and down the Ohio River and across the Midwest. One branch of the family finally moved in the 1870s and '80s through Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado into northern California and then to Oregon, while another headed down through Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona into southern California. From the Atlantic to the Pacific in a century -- that is, in large part, the American story. The author is fortunate in that his ancestors were avid correspondents (and, later, photographers) so he is able to combine primary family source material with the contextual secondary sources available to all historical researchers. He also takes the opportunity to weave into this family narrative what he knows about contemporary events in the wider world, so this book is considerably more than "merely" genealogy. He also possesses a smooth and felicitous writing style and I do not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in grass-roots American history or in a broader approach to family history.