I have just finished reading “Becoming German, The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York" by Phillip Otterness, Cornell University Press, 2004, and found it very well researched. It provided thoughtful new insight to the so-called Palatine migration of 1709. On page 119 and 120 it says: ““As soon as the Mohawks indicated they would not hinder the Germans´ proposed settlement [in the Schoharie valley], “all hands fell to work and in 2 weeks time Clear´d a way thro’ the woods of 15 miles long with the utmost toyle and labour, tho’ almost starv’d and without bread.” [October 31, 1712 letter from Gov. Hunter to the Board of Trade] The Germans probably traveled halfway along the existing road between Albany and Schenectady and then headed west about five miles on a well-traveled Indian path to an area near present-day Altamont where a few Europeans had already settled. From there they probably widened an Indian trail the remaining fifteen miles to the Schoharie Valley. [Frank E. Lichtenthaeler, “Storm Blown Seed of Schoharie," The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society 9 (1944): 35] Fifty families moved immediately to Schoharie, while the others spent the winter in Albany or Schenectady."" A map drawn by Lichtenthaeler to illustrate his article shows the communication routes in 1723. Midway along the wagon route from Albany to Schenectady (now Route 20), a trail is shown going west to Altamont then on through what is now the Town of Knox to meet the Foxenkill at site of Gallupville, then on west to Schoharie. The easterly half of the route appears to have been along what became the Schoharie Plank Road, and later State Rte. 146. Other early sources suggest that the road began near Schenectady. In Hunter's letter to the Board of Trade quoted above, a preceding sentence says in part, "some hundreds of them took a resolution of possessing the land of Schoharee and are accordingly march'd thither have been busy in cutting a road from Schenectady to that place. . " Conrad Weiser, the son of one the original Schoharie settlers, much later wrote a description of the settlement of Schoharie. Walter Allan Knittle, in his "Early Eighteenth-Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemption Project to Manufacture Naval Stores" wrote, "If Weiser's Journal has been read aright, it was in Schenectady that the Indian Quaynant visited his father and as a result Conrad was sent to live with the Indians about the end of November [1712]. It also appears that fifty families could not wait for spring but cutting a rough road from Schenectady to Schoharie in two weeks, they settled there for the winter throwing up rough shelters." This also suggests the road began near Schenectady. On the other hand, in 1816 Judge John M. Brown wrote in "A Brief Sketch of the First Settlement of the County of Schoharie by the Germans, " published 1823, that the road which the first settlers took went from Albany to Schoharie over the "Helleberg." So this would have been the road starting near Altamont. He goes go on to say that he knows of no wagon going thorough [to Schoharie] before 1750. (This would have been when the road was upgraded and re-routed in-part to become the Schoharie Plank Road. Judge Brown, who lived in Schoharie County, was about five years-old.) Brown goes on to say that there was no other market road suitable for wagons until 1762 when a new road was opened through Duanesburg to Schenectady. There is a NYS Historical Marker on Rte. 146 about a mile south of Rte. 20 that was placed to mark the route of the Palatine settlers enroute to Schoharie. I want to be sure that historians are in agreement that the fifteen mile road that was cut to Schoharie in October 1812 began near Altamont. Is that compatible with Conrad Weiser and Gov. Hunter stating that it went from Schenectady? I assume that the families that did not go to Schoharie that winter camped near the start of the new road. Is there any more specific record of where their encampment was located? Harold Miller Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org