United States 
Migration Trails and Roads Massachusetts Coast Path
Did an ancestor travel the Coast Path? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.
The Coast Path was a migration route between Plymouth and Boston near the shore of Massachusetts.[1]
Background History
The Pilgrims from England and the Netherlands founded Plymouth in 1620. The Puritans from England founded Boston in 1630. The Coast Path was the earliest overland route between the two.
The Coast Path probably pre-dated both colonies as part of a much longer American Indian trail with extensions as far north as Maine and New Brunswick (see Kennebunk Road) where the English and other Europeans dried cod from the Grand Banks for markets in Europe.
Route
The Coast Path passed northwest to southeast through Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties:
Connecting Routes Over time the Coast Path connected with the following migration routes out of the Boston end of the Coast Path:
- Bay Road connects Boston (Massachusetts Bay) to New Bedford (Buzzards Bay).
- Kennebunk Road links Boston to Augusta, Maine.
- King's Highway also known as the Boston Post Road goes from Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina with extensions on each end.
- Mohawk or Iroquois Trail This trail was established in 1722 from Albany to Utica to Rome to Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. The Boston to Albany side of that route probably preceded the Albany to Oswego route by many years.
- Old Connecticut Path a pre-historic Indian path from Boston, Massachusetts to Springfield, Massachusetts to Hartford, Connecticut
- Old Roebuck Road goes from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island (Narragansett Bay).
Sources
- ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 9th ed. (Logan, Utah: Everton Pub., 1999), pages 531 and M-48. At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 1999.