Background and Theories

#1  Alexander Dromgoole's grandfather was a former ship captain with the same name.

There is a record of an Alexander Dromgoole that captained a ship traveling from Charleston, SC to Philadelphia, PA and back in the early 1700s.  He disappears from records afterwards, however a Native American record has an Alexander Dromgoole trading among the Indians in the mid 1700s.  This can not be the Alexander born around 1756, but is right age for a grandfather.  Michael's first record is getting a land grant in 1749 in York County, PA, on the frontier, but his parentage hasn't been found, nor how he came to the colonies.  He names his sons, John after wife's father, then Alexander. Could it be after his father?  Also, Alexander born in 1756 must have felt fairly comfortable traveling among the Cherokee to leave his home in Winchester, VA to travel into Indian Treaty Lands repeatedly after the Revolutionary War. He seemed to be readily accepted by the Cherokee also.  Could this be because of his grandfather's paving the way?  So why would the first Alexander come off the sea to travel the rivers and trade?  Could it be because ships carrying passengers and freight between the two port cities were no longer needed as much due to the Great Wagon Road from the north being completed to the Carolinas?  Now settlers could travel by wagon with their animals and belongings, preferable to a sea voyage. Possibly he thought it might be more profitable to move inland.  for that reason, I chose to have Alexander's older brother leave with his grandfather, Alexander the former ship captain, as he travels off into the wilderness.  There are no records found for this John, but his father still thought him alive when he wrote his will in the mid 1700s.