At first I wondered how they all coped with life labouring underground compared with labouring under open skies (conveniently forgetting cold and rain!) but there's no doubt that they were driven by poverty and necessity. The various family member seem to have moved around a fair amount -Earsdon, Longhirst, Cramlington, Morpeth, Jarrow, Gateshead, South Shields among others. Presumably they were travelling for jobs, sometimes lodging with other family members, leaving their wives and children in other parts of the North East.
The John Osborne that Paul Caswell refers to was baptised William John Osborne -(a grandson of William Osborne who I referred to originally). He was described as a coal trimmer - but I'm not sure what that was? His brothers Edward and George also moved North, married and settled in the area.
Looking at some members of later generations they seem to have had better job opportunities than their Norfolk cousins -engineering as opposed to labouring for example. (Not a fair comparison given that I don't know much else about them and their abilities but interesting- perhaps they had more opportunities for education or apprenticeships if the parents were better paid.)
