Genealogy Chat

Just home from a meeting to join my local Family History Society. A lady told me that if ancestors seemed to disappear from a parish in the mid 1800s, then try looking at the main trunk railway lines to see where they might have headed for work. Maybe the GWR has zipped them to the other side of the county; not that spaceship, after all! LOL! Sue (in NZ)

AHHH, but what about befor the trains came. That might be them. Thous Little green men get every where. Good advice thoue and there was always Cannals (and UFOs) befor them.

My family moved from Clapham Sussex to Clapham London in the 1870 but I still want to know why

Margaret - maybe they just liked the name :o)

That's how my branch came to be living in Hull. Sometime between 1891 and 1901 two of the lads came here to work on the railways. Prior to that they had all been Ag Labs up on the Yorkshire Wolds. Jeanette x

Daisy 3 years to get from London to Preston! I guess the service wasn't up to much in those days either! lolol Jeanette x

Actually a good tip is if your ancestors turn up in London Middlesex (i.e. north of the Thames) then you can be pretty sure they caught the train down from east anglia or the north. If they turn up round Southwark then they would have got a train from the south! Has worked out that way for all of mine anyway!

My g grandfather's family left Cornwall and my g grandmother's left Devon for Barrrow in Furness - as did a lot of other West country people. Barrow in Furness was growing, and opening more copper mines, whilst mining was slowing down in the West Country I also have some ag labs from Sufolk who moved when the agricultural revolution started (threshing machines etc), and became fitters and turners etc - working on the machinery. maggie

Don't know about the train. My lot went to Cheshire from Wolverhampton about 1913. My uncles and dad said they used to walk back to Wolverhampton to see the rellies, took em a week.

Railways certainly opened up travel prospects and I believe that the 3rd class was reasonably affordable. The trains could also take you to a town that was growing because of the industrial revolution, and which offered better prospects. nell

A lot of people tend to think the Railways only started in late Victorian times whereas in fact by the 1820s there was a fair amount of traffic.

Yes GGFx3 went down from Norfolk to London 1834

Railways certainly took my ancestors out of Norfolk: as a means of employment as well as transport. Many of them would also have travelled by sea: up to Hull and Sunderland, down to Greenwich. Don't think that the pre Victorians stayed still, either. A maiden aunt died in 1790, leaving money to numerous neices and nephews. The documents they signed to acknowledge receipt of their legacies have survived, giving name, occupation and address. While most are still in the vicinity, some are in Norwich, some in Suffolk, some in London and one abroad.

The first passenger railway opened in 1830. By 1850 the British railway mileage was about one-third of its maximum (but this was, of course, most of the main routes). I think third class travel generally cost 1d per mile. At that rate, £1 would take a family of four (2 + 2) perhaps 80 miles. Presumably the man would "go on ahead" and find a job and somewhere to live. In AgLab terms, I guess £1 was a fair bit to save.

I often wondered if they ever got back to see their families again considering the cost of travel? I wonder if my GGFx2 came back to Norfolk when his brothers married or his father died in 1860? I suppose they didnt write to one another either. May as well been the other side of the world I suppose.

HI Heather I often thought that perhaps my ancestors who emmigrated to America never saw their families again or wrote to them - they were all ag labs. Turns out that one of the brothers that stayed in this country went on a visit to America and can actually be found on the 1870 US census. Also I have a copy of a letter that one of the American lot sent to the English lot. The letter is actually written in verse so he must have been pretty well eduacated. Rumour has it he was a teacher at the village school before he emmigrated. Jeanette x

Supposing your great great great grandmother is born in Sussex (1794), married in Scarborough (1809), died in Stockport (1876). Explain that one! And we thought they stayed near to home. She travelled more than I have (lucky devil). Tina

I'm reading a history of London at the moment and it is very topical, describing how lovely green fields and decent houses were demolished to provide railway sidings and yards. nell

Just had a chance to see what you've all added, after a very busy week at work. What a lot of knowledgeable helpers! Thanks. I'll look into the Norfolk & Middlesex ideas more fully too, since my husband's lot were Norwich & mine were mainly East End! Sue (in NZ)

I have often wondered whether people also moved by canal or river. Some of my family came from Henley on Thames which seemed to have a thriving river link to London. My great grandfather's place of birth varies between censuses, and I wondered if perhaps the family lived on a canal boat!