Happy Trails

When searching for missing branches of the family tree, don’t forget to search along the old state roads, migration routes, cattle trails, and even rivers. Government and cemetery records along these paths may provide leads to the desired details.

One example in north Texas was the old “Preston Trail, later known as Old Preston Road, was the north Texas part of an ancient Indian trail extending from Mexico through central Texas all the way to what is now St. Louis, Missouri and even on to Ohio where the Shawnee Indians lived. The primary portion of the Preston Trail started at Cedar Springs (now part of downtown Dallas) and led north all the way through Grayson County where it crossed the Red River. Preston Trail became part of the first official Texas military road in 1839. The route followed the earlier Shawnee Trail cattle trail. Today Preston Road or SH 289 has been paved near, but not on the original Preston Trail and as such is named after it, but the original Preston Trail crossed almost no streams from the Red River to Cedar Springs. It followed a geographic spine of topography that still exists today where rainwater draining to the west flows into the Elm Fork of the Trinity and rainwater draining to the east flows into the East Fork of the Trinity until the rivers merge below Dallas, Texas.”
 
Gone to Texas, often abbreviated G.T.T. or GTT, was a phrase used by Americans immigrating to Texas in the 19th century[1] often to escape debt[2], especially in the South and Midwest. It was often written on the doors of abandoned houses or posted as a sign on fences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_to_Texas
 
 
Preston Trail, later known as Old Preston Road, was the north Texas part of an ancient Indian trail extending from Mexico through central Texas all the way to what is now St. Louis, Missouri and even on to Ohio where the Shawnee Indians lived. The primary portion of the Preston Trail started at Cedar Springs (now part of downtown Dallas) and led north all the way through Grayson County where it crossed the Red River. Preston Trail became part of the first official Texas military road in 1839. The route followed the earlier Shawnee Trail cattle trail. Today Preston Road or SH 289 has been paved near, but not on the original Preston Trail and as such is named after it, but the original Preston Trail crossed almost no streams from the Red River to Cedar Springs. It followed a geographic spine of topography that still exists today where rainwater draining to the west flows into the Elm Fork of the Trinity and rainwater draining to the east flows into the East Fork of the Trinity until the rivers merge below Dallas, Texas.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Trail & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Road
 

Other Sources:
Birth of Frisco, Texas - http://www.friscocvb.com/History/index.html
Cattle Drives in Texas - http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/ays2.html
Early Texas Settlers - http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SH015.html
Shawnee Trail - http://www.texastreesfoundation.org/pioneer-history.html
Peters Colony Historical Society - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txpchsdc/
Shawnee Trail - http://knightswithoutarmor.20m.com/custom2.html
Map of Early Western Migration Trails - http://www.tngenweb.org/tnletters/usa-west.htm
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/trails_ter/cattle.htm
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-Frontier-Hough.html
The picture is Pioneers on the Frontier, 1847, courtesy Library of Congress.