The ‘discovery’ of the New World by Christopher Columbus in the closing years of the Fifteenth Century triggered a westward flowing tidal wave of emigrants from all over Europe. Amazing numbers of families sold their homes and possessions in order to finance a trip in a small and, oftentimes, overly crowded wooden ship that, because of the nature of the winds and tides, took months to complete.

  Certain of the Muirheads, like individual members of many other families throughout Europe and the Isles, left their homelands to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to find new homes in the Americas. The emigration of Scots from the motherland began in the Sixteenth Century and continued until the American Revolutionary War brought a momentary halt to all emigration to the American colonies in the mid-Eighteenth Century. The flow of emigrants recommenced during the 1800s and continues to the present day.

  These emigrants left their homelands for any of a number of reasons. Some may have had wanderlust, seeking the excitement of travel and the discovery of new sights and experiences to be found in other lands. Some left due to economic hardships, encouraged by the hope that things would be better across the ocean. Some, including the Covenanters, were forced to leave against their will.

  Our Muirhead ancestors who emigrated from Scotland did so for just about every one of the reasons listed above.

  The icons below link to additional sections devoted to the genealogies of the various individuals / families which immigrated to America.

Please note that within the webpages devoted to each individual family line, paragraphs are preceeded by "Muirhead tartan" icons which bear numbers denoting the generation from the line's progenitor {the progenitor always being generation #1}. For example: The icon shown to the right would be used to denote the grandchildren of the line's progenitor, i.e. generation #3.