Have you stayed put?

I did not stay put but looking into my mother's side of the family nobody strayed far from our county or married someone from outwith the county. I feel it must be very different for anyone who lives in the same town all their lives . I have no connection now with anyone I went to school with despite moving back to my roots ( almost ).

I live in Northumberland, I was born 11 miles away just over the county border in Cumberland (Cumbria as it is now). The man I married was born in the same hospital as me 8 months earlier. He lived in a small village 6 miles from where I grew up but we didn't meet until we were adults. His mother and my grandfather had ancestors in common!
It's strange how life turns out.

Lived in London all my life, now living 5miles from where I was born.

I was born a northerner but have lived in the south for over 30 years. I’d never go back to live there as all my close family live here in the south. Moved about quite a lot in the past 40+ years but this is home now.

My mum's family/ancestors were from Workington Cumbria and she was born just across the sea on the IOM so they weren't far from home.

I only live about 12 miles from where I was born, but in a different county.

Born, brought up and still live in the same small Kent town.
DH was born in north London, when we got engaged we talked about living in London. I'm so glad we didn't but would happily live elsewhere in the country.

My family tree illustrates perfectly the population movement from agriculture jobs in the countryside to clerical jobs in the London suburbs in the nineteenth century. I moved away to go to university, never went back to the south-east and now live in France. However, my DD is bringing up her family ten miles from where I grew up and in the town that her paternal great-grandparents left in the 1900s.

I too transcribe for FreeCen (and FreeReg) and have often thought the same as you, lots marrying people from same place or very nearby town/village. Often the same surname turning up in multiple families.
I was born in Somerset, lived a few different places in the county and ended up in Dorset so not a great distance really. All my paternal family (that I have found so far) were Somerset. My maternal family moved around more and some hailed from Ireland.

jusnoneed, I’ve noticed the multiple households with same surname too. Not to mention the remarkable persistence of forenames within families, even given a relatively small pool of names, to the extent that some infants are christened with the name of a deceased sibling. My middle name was my grandmother’s, but I hadn’t realised how very many Ellens had preceded her. More generally it does look as if more folk than I’d thought still don’t stray far.

My background is anything but settled. Two of my grand parents were Irish immigrants, the other two the children of immigration from other counties, north of London to the city. One strand were mainly in the army, so travelled the world and Britain, although in retirement they congregated between London and the south coast.

At 21, I worked out that I had lived in 6 countries and 5 regions of Britain. I now live in Oxfordshire.

DH on the other hand can trace both sides of his family in parish records to the 16th century as living in the same small town and immediate environs he was born in.

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

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 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.

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.

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 only moved 4 miles away from where I was born

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'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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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.