Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone, my ancestors came to london between 1860 and 1870 from Suffolk. A while back on the tv show WDYTYA it showed Jeremy Paxman in almost the same area of suffolk that my family came from, researching his family as they had also left, he found (with help!) records on how the church had given aid and also arranged for the family to leave suffolk for jobs in the north. I have a feeling this may have been the case for my family also, even though the family story involves running away to london because of a murder. I just wondered if anyone knows how i could access these records or who i could contact about them. Any tips would be great thanks yvette

You do not actually say where in Suffolk your family lived. Suffolk was mainly agricultural and suffered badly from a number of factors in succession from 1830 onwards (did not recover until WW II). Suffolk like Norfolk also suffered the gang system of agricultural labour - much the same as today's gang system where a gang master contracts to have a job done. Pay had not gone up from a low base. London wages were very much higher than Suffolk wages. Your dates are a little vague - there were huge steps forward being made every decade. One factor was the introduction of trains. Another was better water and sewerage. There was still Poor Law Union assistance for emigrants but not for movement within England which is what happened earlier in the century. Some of the county or BBC history sites may tell you more about your particular district of interest. Clive

Two things happened to drive people to the towns to work. Steam ships arrived on the scene making imports of raw materials cheaper and depressing agriculture (also applied 20 years after the repeal of the corn laws to corn - no idea why it took so long to take affect). The other was the building of large factories with factory worker housing which was far, far better than rural housing. The factories needed labour. To get it they paid more money than farmers. Factories were generally built either where they raw materials were or where there was a large market. The 1855 bricklayer above was probably part of the effort to build the London sewers. But yes there was a building boom. I have forgotten the exact dates/figures but over approx 25 years the purchasing power of a London labourer's wage doubled. In the1850s a parliamentary inquiry found that all workers needed about the same amount of money for their essential weekly outgoing. Agricultural labourers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Dorset earned about half the required amount so kids of five had to work. Clive

Hi Yvette A lot of my family moved into London from Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire and my brother always said it was for work. Now I wish they hadn't lol, i have been to the parts they left and it is lovely. Julie

Hi everybody, thank you so much for your replies, sorry i was a bit vague before. The area in suffolk was Fressingfield/Saxtead. And the family were listed as ag labs on the censuses. Going by the births of the children it was shortly after 1864.and 1868 They ended up in Croydon in surrey.

Yvette I've just looked at an old map, be it that it doesn't come down as far as Croydon, it looks like there was still a lot of land there, so maybe they did come down to farm. The map was 1877 Don't know if you can pick up this link http://freepages*genealogy*rootsweb*com/~nmfa/Maps/surrey_1845_walkers/surrey_1945_walkersr.jpg

I am always amazed how mobile our forefathers were. Even 250 years ago people left their homes in search of employment. One family in my tree to seek their fortunes elsewhere were the Quintrells. My ancestor left the Roseland Penninsula in Cornwall to work in the Naval Dockyards in Portsmouth, and he went home to marry his bride and move her there with him. My Alexanders left Berkshire to find work in Bury and surrounding area - the children went into the mills very young, but the next generation all seemed to have done reasonably well and by the 1900s were all pursuing professions. The Jeffcoat family left Buckinghamshire and settled in Islington. Many of the family were in London, My Scottish ancestors moved from both north and south of Aberdeen down to Edinburgh and Glasgow, leaving the land for better paid jobs. My husband's family also made journeys. One set of Newtons left Lincolnshire, ending up in London. Another Newton family left Stalybridge in 1800 and set up a firebrick merchants business in Southwark, using the river Thames. My husbands Tuffnalls moved from St Albans/Hatfield up to Staffordshire, the father still working in agriculture, but the children mainly starting off in the local tape factory, but progressing onto other jobs. Many moved south again. At first I was surprised at all these comings and goings, but now I have come to expect them. And of course, several branches of the family emigrated - to South Africa, Australia and also New Zealand.

thanks everyone for the info. When my ancestor got to london/surrey he was employed as a general labourer, according to the census. I have not been able to find them on the 1871 which would have given me an address to see if they had settled elsewhere, as croydon is shown on the 1881. i will have a look at that link. I still live near croydon (as do most of the family) so its easy to pick up local history books about that area. Thanks again for your interest good luck everyone.

My Matthews branch moved from Cornwall to cumbria around the late 1870's/ early 80s. I've no idea why but it was a lonnnnnng way to come. The Aspburys came from Derbyshire & Herefordshire to Staffs before moving north in the 1870s And the Smiths came from Shropshire via Staffs & Liverpool in the early 1880's It makes me wonder; it was almost like a boom town in those days. Iron had been discovered in 1850s so there was a growing iron industry. 1864 seemed to have been the year of the population explosion from 300 to 8000 and by 1881 it had leapt to 47000. Apparently it is one of only a few 'planned' towns in the 19th century. I don't know if the moves had to do with the Iron industry, the railway plans or event he plans for the shipyard that. Maybe they had family come up and sent word that 'hey come north there's loads of jobs' or some such thing. it's very interesting and I sometimes wish I could sit down and have a cuppa and ask them about it. It would have been a huge move to make in them days and I do wonder about their reasons. Must have been a real gamble, but I imagine the most sensible reason to move would be work and/or family. In complete contrast... a branch of my father's side seem to have stayed in practically the same area of chippenham for at least 150 years, until my dad's generation... I really need to go down there to investigate their local records but it's a long way for me. Some times we will never know for sure why they made a move, but we can make some fair guesses on the reasons. Liz (um... sorry if I went slightly off topic lol)

A lot of my Ancestors came to London for work, from Bedforshire, Buckinghamshire,Somerset, Essex and Norfolk. Most of the Bedfordshire ones went to Canada, Australia and America, courtesy of the Overseers of the Parish, as they did this to stop paying them poor law money. Most were Ag Labs, and there was'nt any work for them. Seems reverse is happening now, I went to Hampshire 30 years ago from Greater London.

For Liz; Cornwall to 'the North' was often because the Cornish tin miners had learnt how to deal with water in the mines and their knowledge and skills were needed in the North as coal mines went deeper. Pure coincidence of course that the tin mines were running out of tin wasn't it? Clive

Clive, that's really interesting and makes a lot of sense. Thanks. And yeah... pure coincidence *winks* Liz