Hi - I did some reseach on Jefferson County for my diss, and found that most of the early in-migrants were either 2nd generation Yorkers from the Mohawk/Susquehanna river valleys, or migrants from Vermont (along with a few Canadians - both Fr and Eng). Have you looked at Don Meinig's historical geography section in John Thompson's Geography of NYS? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Suzanne Etherington NYSARA Region 6 Advisory Officer Binghamton State Office Building - #1604 44 Hawley Street Binghamton, NY 13901 voice: 607/721-8428 fax: 607/721-8431 email: [log in to unmask] http://www.sara.nysed.gov >>> [log in to unmask] 06/12 11:07 AM >>> All this talk about rent wars makes me glad I just bought a house! Seriously, though, I am aware that there were the famous anti-rent wars were raging in the Van Rensselaer patroonship (1836-1850) but I have found a migration and settlement pattern in central New York that makes me wonder about earlier incidents of strife and earlier exodi (exoduses?) and from the rent districts. Since my copy of S.B. Kim's _Landlord and Tenant_ is packed away and out of reach, I thought I had better ask the list! The Holland Land Company tracts in central New York (Cazenovia Establishment under John Lincklaen) were settled in the 1790s. Fifteen years later, in 1806 and 1807 I find a wave of people (30 or so families) who hailed from Rensselaer County, NY coming to the area. They came from places like Pittstown, Petersburg, Berlin, Stephentown, and Hoosic, and settled in scattered places in the Holland Purchase = present Cazenovia, Nelson, DeRuyter, Linklaen, German, and Pitcher = and I suspect elsewhere in the state) I also find several from neighboring Saratoga, Columbia, and Albany Co.s. Other folks were coming from MA and CT at the same time (1805-1807) so it may also be that they were simply looking for better land in frontier communities that had now been settled for 15 years old. Was there some strife or distress in the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, or were these second generation pioneers wanting to move on to better pastures? Dan W.