Marylanders & Delawareans Abroad

This year, I was treated to DNA testing through Ancestry.com. Although fascinating, it created many questions as I soon learned that most of the people whose DNA match both myself and my Uncle, all come from outside of Delaware. This was quite the shocker as most of my research for my mom's side of the family has shown our roots to go deep within delaware for hundreds of years.

After much tinkering around with different genealogies, I began to see a pattern with those who matched me genetically: most had ancestors from Kentucky, then possibly from Virginia or the Carolinas. But none seem to have Delaware or Maryland links in their trees.

Or so they think :)

Noticing this trend, I began to look into migration patterns and found a man who has published books with such titles as "Marylanders to Kentucky". As it turns out, a great number of people from the Salisbury and Worcester Counties of Maryland, migrated in hoards to first the Carolinas, then to Kentucky/Tennessee border towns, some then moving on to Missouri and/or Illinois.

After finding this particular migration pattern, I began to also notice a common county that most went to in Missouri: Selby County, Missouri, as well as seeing the town name of Palmyra pop up occasionally. In searching through the county history of Selby, I came across multiple family names I recognized that had originated in my ancestral homeland.

Familes from Worcester County, MD that moved to Selby County, Missouri in the early-mid 1800's:
Coard
Ennis
Melson
Gordy
Cordry
Elliott
Trader
Gray
Tingle
Williamson
White
Duncan

Families from Wicomico County, MD that did the same:
Parker
Wallop

Families from Sussex County, DE who also ended up in Selby CO., MO
Morris
Thomas
Shires
Boyce
Ball
Messick
Huffington
Smith (descendants of Marvel Smith to be exact)
Horton

Hopefully as I research more, I will be able to add to this list and have it grow. If you are reading this and know of other family names that migrated into KY, TN, MO or IL from the Delmarva area, please let me know!