I think the situation may have been far more varied than a nostalgic: "Place and family mattered a lot back then" I suspect that place and family has generally

I think the situation may have been far more varied than a nostalgic: "Place and family mattered a lot back then" I suspect that place and family has generally always important. Yet, early US it took weeks/months for communication to occur over long distance. Also, let's not forget westward expansion, a thing that lasted even into more recent times. It was quite common for adult children to move west to homestead. There's also immigration to consider, which is a big example of relocation, and these future American's and their descendants continued to migrate (in the early days of the US)