A friend of mine from Olivet, Michigan told me that when he took a trip to upstate New York a few years back, he was struck by how similar the accents were to Southern and Central Michigan.
Of course, when this downstater visited Cooperstown, NY when he was ten, he thought he landed on another planet, let alone another state. I have noticed since that upstaters sound more like midwesteners than they do downstaters or New Englanders.
My ancestors also came to upstate NY before settling in Detroit
No doubt about it. That part of the country was originally settled by people who came down the Erie Canal. The regional accent in Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, all the way out to Davenport, IA is essentially the same.