Relatives who moved around a lot

[Daonnachd]

Sorry to put a downer on things, but there are other less happy reasons for families in the 1800's to move about a lot.

My mum told me about one - it was common in London certainly for working class (i.e. us!) to do a 'moonlight flit'.  If families had run out of money and couldn't pay the rent, they would pack up and leave before the rent collector or the bailiff turned up. (They didn't exactly have much to move so it wasn't difficult as it sounds.

Another reason was that bailiffs or the landlord would throw them out for not being able to pay the rent (or any other random reason).

It would be very unlikely that a working class family would own their own home, so most had to rent.
 Landlords could put up rents as and when they liked and kick people out for no reason. Poor families had no way of fighting unscrupulous landlords, so it was a situation that many would have found themselves in.

[iluleah]

Sorry to put a downer on things, but there are other less happy reasons for families in the 1800's to move about a lot.

My mum told me about one - it was common in London certainly for working class (i.e. us!) to do a 'moonlight flit'. If families had run out of money and couldn't pay the rent, they would pack up and leave before the rent collector or the bailiff turned up. (They didn't exactly have much to move so it wasn't difficult as it sounds.

Another reason was that bailiffs or the landlord would throw them out for not being able to pay the rent (or any other random reason).

It would be very unlikely that a working class family would own their own home, so most had to rent.
 Landlords could put up rents as and when they liked and kick people out for no reason. Poor families had no way of fighting unscrupulous landlords, so it was a situation that many would have found themselves in.

Common practice in all big cities and in rural areas their landlord was their employer so lost of a job also meant loss that same day of their home...... I did watch a social history programme some time ago it was very interesting.
Also it was easier back then to avoid police/courts if they committed a crime, they just 'uped' and moved some leaving wife/children and marrying as a single man ( sure it also happened and women did it to)

[Greensleeves]

The iron and steel industry in Lancashire was going through a series of changes from about the mid 19th century, when the popular bessemer process of steel production was being replaced by the open hearth method.  A lot of companies who failed to keep pace with the new technology went to the wall, which (as has previously stated) would mean that many of the workers would have been forced to seek work elsewhere.

Regards
GS

[Ellenhall]

I was actually wondering about this with another branch of the family who lied all over the place (marriage certificate, census - except hey didn't change their childrens names so they could be found with a bit of searching). They (my great grandparents) upped and moved around a lot (different Lancashire towns) and I assumed it was because of debt as the wife was known to like a flutter on the horses according to her granddaughter (my aunt) who was scared of her. Their debts were so much so that by the time my grandfather, one of the youngest, moved out (his mother took his pay packet and minutes after that told him she was going to live with one of her daughters so he was on his own, with no wage for the week) they had absolutely no furniture left. So that lot, I'm pretty sure they were on the run.

But the moulder and his family, I'm not so sure about. A completely different branch of the family, educated, very close to his in-laws who I know were good, stable people according to two of their grandchildren who grew up with the grandmother in the house. Which made me think it was unusual for them to move around so much.

Although it's got to be so hard to know who moved for the good jobs and who moved to get away from debt. I just wish there were even more records that could shed some light on circumstances and their actual lives. Maybe there are somewhere?

[iluleah]

I just wish there were even more records that could shed some light on circumstances and their actual lives. Maybe there are somewhere?

Don't we all wish that and that we asked more questions before it was too late ( or like mine wouldn't answer  passed everything off or said " let sleeping dogs lie")
The thing is any records we do look at are not for us to research FH, they were only for religious, civil, tax or legal purposes and to keep track of people, 'we' are just resourceful and found them useful for our own research ( nosiness) and most people didn't write a diary........... oh I would love to find one of those!

Old Wills can give some windows into personal lives and poor law records, newspaper reports of arrests etc often give more personal details......... the best personal record I have ever 'found' was a police note book (owned by the family of the long gone PC) who was a PC at the time my family lived in the same village...it was really interesting and informative and told me snippets of daily life of the people he came into contact with, also the vicar did his own census in the parish day book  in between 'normal' census dates and in great detail and that enabled me to prove a line I would not have ever proved any other way.

So the parish day book is something you could look and see if it still exists ( many don't) or are still in the parish chest in the church along with paid invoices to trades people and notes written on them.

[Daonnachd]

For my relatives who lived in Victorian London, I've tried to match up their addresses to Booth's map, which gives a street by street idea for how rich, poor, or indeed criminal, the local population was.

If you haven't seen it before, just search for it online. You will see than even in the same street he marked out differences between one end of the road and another.

It was by doing this, that I found out I have people who lived on Jacob's Island - the most notorious slum in London, as portrayed in Oliver Twist!

Clearly you can't be sure that just because someone lives in a notoriously criminal area, they are criminals, but we are looking at general theft and prostitution which were rife in all poor urban areas, as well as more gruesome crimes. People often resorted to these occupations when they couldn't see any other option.

If you people ended up in the workhouse, they probably weren't criminal, as I believe that only the 'deserving' poor were accepted into Workhouses. The 'undeserving poor' that is anyone with a criminal record, or 'bad' reputation, didn't even have this dubious opportunity. 

[iluleah]

If you people ended up in the workhouse, they probably weren't criminal, as I believe that only the 'deserving' poor were accepted into Workhouses. The 'undeserving poor' that is anyone with a criminal record, or 'bad' reputation, didn't even have this dubious opportunity. 

..........and pre NHS many used the workhouse as a free resource for healthcare as  going to the doctor or having an operation was only for those who could afford it

[Ellenhall]

Very interesting! I'm just amazed at the knowledge on here! Unfortunately I have no relatives that lived in London. If only there was such information for Lancashire towns!

I did have a relative (the iron moulder's daughter) who died in the Blackburn union workhouse of syphilis. 3 years previously on the census her husband was in lodging, her daughters living with her parents and her sons living with their paternal grandparents. She and her youngest (age 3) were miles away in Yorkshire, staying in a boarding house and her occupation said "travelling". I guess that just meant she was on her way to some destination? It did seem odd and I did suspect prostitution (only because I couldn't think of any other good reason for it all to add up) but then again, if she was a prostitute, she probably wouldn't have been accepted into the workhouse for medical help? And it would quite go against the 'reputation' of the family. But, in any family there's likely a black sheep. Anyway, she managed to make her way back to her home town and ended up in the workhouse there so she must have been a deserving case. Her husband later ended up in Crumpsall / Prestwich union workhouse so I'm guessing he had the same condition and also deserving.

My other branch of the family, the dodgy ones, no workhouse records. Piecing this together, even going on probabilities rather than facts, is so interesting.     

[iluleah]

Isn't it really funny how we try to make sense out of the lives and lifestyles of our ancestors and make judgements based on them all and from often very scant information (and we all do it as human beings).......