Have you stayed put?

I'm Devonshire born and bred. Born in Plymouth, raised in Torquay and then moved gradually eastwards, living in Newton Abbot and various surrounding villages at times.
My father's family are Devonians back as far as I can trace.
But my mother's family moved here from London and I don't have enough details to trace her ancestors.

Anything but settled! My grandmother moved from Glasgow to Sunderland; my parents moved from there to Birmingham; I’ve lived in Dublin (via several places including Brussels) with my N. Irish husband for 40+ years. One son married an American he met in Germany and they are currently in the Middle East while another son’s wife is Brazilian and they live in Malta. International or what? (Though we still have three others in Dublin....)

I've not moved far but my family generally moved for work following a common population move. My paternal family moved from the highlands of Scotland to near Glasgow in the nineteenth century. My maternal family moved from Yorkshire to Lancashire around the same time.
My parents met in WW11 and moved to London for promotion, after I was born. I've lived in south London ever since.

I was born in Lancashire, I know several previous generations where born/lived within 10 miles. 17 years ago we moved to Nottinghamshire, no particular reason, just wanted a change of scenery. I have 3 children, one is 7 miles away from us, one in Rugby and the other is just starting out family life with his first son around 8 miles away from where I was born.

Just waiting now until we move to North East Scotland, hopefully later this year.

I live 2 miles from where I and my father were born and wed. My husband was born at the same hospital as I, 2 years prior. My in laws parents were married in the same church we were and both were born and raised within 5 miles of my father. My mother was an incomer from Wales in the run up to war. My and my husbands siblings have moved away and one of my children has moved up North the other has stayed put. We have to keep the graves tended somehow!!

In my late teens I moved to London then moved around for about 10 years but came back to my home town when my son was born.

I’ve moved 25 miles across London from East to North West. I went to uni after I was married so have literally never lived anywhere other than London and have never wanted to.

I did move away in my late teens, married, but then moved back and have stayed. Both my brother and sister have stayed put, not moving from the town they were born in.

I’ve moved around a bit, however, my Mum who is 89 still lives in the same road she has always lived in, in the house opposite where she was born !

Yes we've stayed put only live two miles from where I was born have had various houses in different areas over the years but still managed to stay in the area we were born. Where we live there's a lot of young families doing the same still living only streets away from parents. Washington/ gateshead area.

My paternal grandmother left Ireland for England in the late 19th C, and my grandfather was from Hampshire, where his father had moved from Glasgow. My mother’s family, however, was fairly static in Lancashire until my mother moved to go to university in Liverpool. Both my parents lived in France for a time.

My husband came to England from Australia. His parents had moved there from London and France.

I was brought up in Wirral, moved to London for university, stayed in London for a while, moved to Edinburgh, then back to the NW for a particular job, not far from Wirral again. I still live in the area, though I wanted to live in the south and feel vaguely ashamed to be living so close to where I was born! Moving about shows a sense of curiosity and adventure. I made sure my children moved, and now I have one son in London and one in south Bucks.

My daughter in law’s mother’s family is Polish and she (DIL’s mother) was the first child of the family to be born in England, in 1949.

I am constantly surprised by how many people on these boards seem to have family round the corner. It must be useful, I suppose, but I’m still convinced that moving about is a good thing, and I’m glad my children did. I would always encourage it.

When we moved here, about 9 years ago I thought we had no ties to the area. Weeks prior to moving here (South Lanarkshire) I had discovered my maternal great grandmother was born in a village nearby. We moved to be closer to my husbands work.

Since moving here I discovered my maternal gt gt grandparents lived in our town or nearby it all of their adult life. Gt Gt grandmother is in the local cemetery. Maternal grandmother was born 4 miles away.

I thought my mother's family were from Fife because that is where Gt grandparents and my grandparents lived when I was growing up.

Discovering all this did help me settle in here.

What an interesting subject. Having traced his family tree my husband's paternal grandfather emigrated to NY from Ireland where he met his wife who was from Birmingham (UK) so my FIL was born in the US. His parents split up so he came back to the UK at 6 months and grew up in Birmingham before meeting and marrying MIL up in East Yorkshire. Her family had also moved around quite a lot but within Yorkshire although one branch originated in Bedfordshire, Mine on the other hand were born and bred up north in the same town and it was my parents who broke the mould so to speak and moved to Yorkshire in the 60's. Once married I then left to move 60 miles away due to my husband's job then again 6 years later and have been in this South Yorks town for 32 years, Our own sons moved further afield - one to Bedfordshire for work (ironically not far from his grandmother's ancestors) and the other to Auckland NZ where his wife's family are. Our family tree will show grandchildren on both sides of the globe now.

I'm from the much travelled people too.
Opposite of you BradfordLass72 I'm a 4th generation New Zealander who migrated back ? to Scotland.
Thanks to you wonderful transcribers, I have found almost all my roots.

My ancestors were clearly adventurous coming from Sweden, Scotland and Ireland and settling in the North of England. My parents met in the RAF during World War 2 which maybe has some bearing on where that generation settled. When I left home in Cumbria I spent time in North Wales and then Lancashire where I settled. My (now ex) husband was from the Midlands which makes me wonder how much college/university has an influence on where we finally settle. My own DC have not been to college/uni nor obviously has there been a major war. They all live within ten minutes from me!

I'm far from 'home', in terms of where I was born, in Kent. I'm now in NE Scotland, via numerous parts of the UK as far north as Thurso, and also Indonesia and W Africa.

My mother's family came from Wales and Shropshire. My father's paternal side moved from Somerset to Kent and then to S Africa. His maternal side went from 17Ct France to S Africa via Batavia.

When researching my family history I was astonished how much they travelled. Dad was born in SA in 1907 and by the time he was four years old had voyaged to and from the UK twice!

My father's family came from Kent but some dispersed in the early 20th C. My maternal grandfather's family was pretty solidly Suffolk based but my maternal gmother was an exotic mixed race Jamaican. So not sure where my roots are. Brought up in Essex but moved steadily north since my 20s. Now in the NE to which I've no connection whatsoever.

When I did my Uni dissertatation I studied 19thC census returns for a small local area. People came into Durham from all over the UK as the coalfields expanded. I doubt if any 'locals' (apart from a few farming families) have an association with the area going back more than 150 years. Would that count as 'staying put'?

I'm a true Thursday's child.
I traced my family back to the 1500s and so many were born in Pateley Bridge but come the revolution moved to Bradford for work.

I have ancestors on Mum's side who went to Canada and Australia.
I moved from Bradford initially to New Zealand with all my husband's family in the early 1970's.
I was forced to come back for a while and then it was Bradford-Bournemouth and beautiful, beautiful Cornwall for a few year before returning to Aotearoa.

I hope I won't be moving again because I adored New Zealand from the first moment I landed and it nearly killed me to go back to the UK.
So now I've been happily settled for the past 32 years and with any luck, will die here. It's home.

That is very interesting EllenT.
In fact, when researching family history for both DH and myself, I have been struck about just how far they did travel including emigration (and return in one case).
It's interesting, too, that there are coincidences in our family histories. Although DH thought he had no connection with the area where I was brought up (200 miles from where he was born and grew up), it turned out that I had been at school with one of his distant cousins, a branch of the family about whom he knew nothing.

When visiting a large NT property a census for, if I recall correctly, 1881 was on the table and many of the staff recorded there came from quite diverse locations in the country.

I only moved 4 miles away from where I was born

EllenT I often think there must of been some confusion when various parents etc were calling children, so many Elizabeth's, Sarah, Ann's and William, John and Edwards were around lol.

I have lived within seven miles of where I was born for most of my life.
However, both sets of grandparents came over to Scotland from Ireland, looking for work in the mills.

My family moved from 19th century Norfolk and Bedfordshire into London during the industrial Revolution. The late 20th century saw them move out again.
Personally I was born at the far South of Essex (now Greater London) to the north of the county.

Sadly no. My roots on my fathers side are firmly in the Scottish Borders but I have lived “down South” for the last 48 years and would be as much a stranger in the Borders as any incomer.

My parenst were born and raised in Glasgow ,their parents were Glaswegians too but all the previous generation but one were from Ireland .From Donegal.Cork and Co.Down .We moved 20 miles from Glasgow when I was 12 and we've stayed here ever since .My sisters and I always lived within 5 minutes of MUm and Dad and my children and my sisters children are all the same until very recently when my daughter moved 40 miles away to Argyle