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Genealogy/memories

Have you stayed put?

(112 Posts)
EllenT Fri 18-Jan-19 15:50:22

I'm a volunteer transcriber of census data for FreeCen and am currently working on the 1891 records for the area of rural Lancashire where my mother's maternal family originated. After some while doing this, one thing is very striking, among other fascinating aspects. It's the huge preponderance of people who were born in the civil parish where they were recorded on census day, and the almost equally large proportion who married people from the immediate locality. Of course, I know that transport, travel and employment opportunities were much more limited then, but how different from our current levels of mobility. Or maybe it's just me? Born in Lancashire, subsequently moved around the UK, now come to rest in Northumberland. I wondered if many Grans had, despite our restless age, stayed put around their birthplace?

CassieJ Sun 20-Jan-19 09:52:11

I was born in London, moved to Hertfordshire as a child. Married and moved to Bedfordshire, then Cambridgeshire, back to Hertfordshire, then onto Scotland for 20 years. Now living in Staffordshire.
So, Yes moved a lot over the years. None of my family live close by or live where they were born. All have moved several times over the years.

I am always surprised by people that still live in the same place they were born and have never thought of moving away, and their families also live close by.

Coppernob Sun 20-Jan-19 09:59:35

Reminds me of a conversation I had with an old lady shortly after we moved to our present house 8 years ago. She lived in a house on the road behind ours, so our gardens backed on to each other. She was telling me how, as a little girl, she used to play on the fields where our house now is. She then said “I haven’t always lived here. I used to live next door.”

GrandmaPam Mon 21-Jan-19 08:54:49

At 65, I now live 10 miles from where I was born and my childhood home, for the first 8 years of my life. In the interim, I have lived all over the UK, in Holland and in Sweden. My kids are well travelled and very confident, which I know is related to us living abroad, so I'm so pleased we did that. The situation of caring for my mother brought us back to the area, and I am loving it - back to my roots in northern England. I won't be going anywhere else! I look around at some families though, and some work colleagues who would not entertain moving away from their familiar childhood home, and I always feel they are missing so much! Just my opinion of course....

Anniebach Mon 21-Jan-19 09:18:13

I live 20 miles from where I was born and grew up , where I grew up was where my paternal grandmother and ancestors lived, now I live where my maternal grandmother and ancestors lived .

Granless Mon 21-Jan-19 17:53:15

Still live in the town I was born in. I/we tried moving away to Wales (70 miles away) - sold our house, bought one in Wales but couldn’t go through with it. Roots were too deep, friends too far away to have a coffee with. In a way I regret not carrying the move out but felt it was too late in life to up sticks also.

Hm999 Mon 21-Jan-19 18:34:53

When I look at my family's history, converging on S London in second half of the 18th century, we have ancestors from Herefordshire, Suffolk, Somerset, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Sussex, Pembrokeshire, Essex, Lincolnshire and Surrey. Almost came from agricultural backgrounds, but left there to work in some kind of service industry, some time after the Industrial Revolution.

Framilode Mon 21-Jan-19 21:03:59

Born in Lancashire, then Uganda, school in Wales, then berkshire, Hampshire and back to Lancashire. Short time in London, then Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, 15 years in Spain and now finally, I hope, Oxfordshire.

Catterygirl Mon 21-Jan-19 21:24:06

I was born in Southport and with my stepdad being an engineer we went on to live in Macclesfield, Hove, the birthplace of anthracite wherever that was, followed by Texaco in Trinidad and the CAT company in Kuwait.

bluejay29 Fri 01-Feb-19 14:57:41

Born and lived in South London till I was 7, then family immigrated to New Zealand in 1963. Saw many beautiful places as we had to go and return by passenger ship... so grateful for that. Came back to South London in 1968. Moved from there to Eastbourne in 2001. Could not imagine living back where I was born, the place has changed so much and now I appreciate living in the country near the sea.

bluejay29 Fri 01-Feb-19 14:59:10

Also, my dad's ancestors were farmers from Lancashire but must have moved down South at some point.

Juggernaut Fri 01-Feb-19 15:28:09

I live 8 miles from where I was born!
I grew up in the road DM had lived in as a child, but in the house next door but one.
DF was born 1.6 miles from where I live now.
We're lucky enough to live on a beautiful bit of the coast, in fact the house I live in now is literally on the promenade!
DS had to work away for the first few years of his career, but came back here as soon as he could, he doesn't want to live anywhere but where he grew up.
DDiL is from inland, but jumped at the chance to live near to us on the coast. They live diagonally behind our house, one road back from the prom.
I may consider moving slightly inland if we downsize as all the houses on the prom are big, family homes, and ours is really a bit too big for just the two of us.
However, when I say inland, I mean within two hundred metres of the prom, I couldn't live without smelling the sea every day!
DS has already informed us that if we move, he'll be buying our house, he wants DGS to grow up in the same house as he did, with the prom and beach right outside the front door!
It takes less than 1.5 minutes to walk from our front door to stepping on to sand, I'm not giving that up in any sort of a hurrywink