The Allure of Western New York

Curiously, and coincidentally, three of our ancestors' families located within about 100 miles of each other in western New York, all within the timeframe of the 19th century, some of them as pioneers in communities newly carved out of the wilderness.  The map below shows these settlements, of the Keys, Day, Beebe and Spaulding families in Holley and Orleans County; the Jackson family in Arcade; and the Durfee family in Palmyra.  Only the eventual concentration of their descendants on the Elsie-Ovid axis exceeds the coincidental nature of these New York communities.