Is moving all over the UK common in the early 1800s?

[Old Mother Reilly]

I agree with all the above.  There are great contrasts, just as there are today.  Some people stay put, others move for work or marriage.  I have found domestic servants to be a pretty mobile class at this time.  They either moved around the country with their employers or changed employers (and areas) for promotion.  Families involved in all transportation trades were mobile; those involved in the coaching trade, as well as mariners.  Those in the forces went all over the world.  I feel quite the stay-at-home compared with how some of my ancestors (otherwise very ordinary, working people) travelled!

[Eyesee]

My-g-g-g-grandfather born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1795 had moved to London by 1819. Not sure of the exact reasons why, but probably for work.

Was fairly common at that time period I believe.

Another ancestor born in Devon in 1805 was in London by 1823.

Ian C

[youngtug]

Depending on the social standing of the people in question, if servants then they could have been working for a employer anywhere in the UK. A lot of domestic servants found employment through agency's or wanted adds in newspapers and were often a fair distance from their home. If employed by someone who moved between residencies then often certain servants travelled with them. Of course they may well have been travelling for their own reasons.
 

[youngtug]

Of interest maybe;
    http://visitvictorianengland.blogspot.com/2014/12/servants-registries-how-victorian-maids.html

[BumbleB]

In the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census, I have a lady who listed her occupation as:

1851 - Agency Office
1861 - Establishment for Servants
1871 - Agency Office for Governesses and Servants

[BumbleB]

I was told some time ago, that is was usual for domestic staff to be recruited from a distant area - it meant that they could not "run off home" at will.  Looking at the census entries for a landowner in the village where I lived as a child who also had a property in London, it was noticeable that very few of the staff had been born in the particular area of either property.

[medpat]

Having researched my family I think people moved around more than I thought they would. Some lived all their life in the same street others moved to the otherside of the world.

I have families of miners who moved from Dudley and Walsall areas to Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border then onto parts of Yorkshire and into Durham and Stockton areas.

One family (head an engineer) went to Barrow in Furness, leaving older sons there, moved to Leeds then Middlesbrough, where his wife died. He then returned to Dudley with his 2 daughters, in their late teens, leaving some children in Middlesbrough although one son went back from there to Barrow.

Many of my ancestors moved into the Black Country late 1700s early 1800s but mostly from adjoining counties, changing from agriculture to heavy industry. Have lots of miners and puddlers then the engineering jobs start. Lots of nail and chain makers plus leather workers also.

Servants for the very rich would move about as there might be several homes. Service men and their families moved about. I was surprised how many ancestors emigrated throughout Victorian times.


Moving from Scotland to the south coast and back again, although taking a long time to us, would be a probability I would say.

[Skoosh]

Apart from the Industrial Revolution the French wars caused a great movement of people & much increased economic activity. The Militia Acts, Shipbuilding, cattle production etc'


Skoosh.

[lmfamilyresearch]

Thanks for the responses everyone.  It certainly helps to see that it's not as strange as I thought it was for people to move around so much.

Interestingly enough, my Cochrane-Riddel ancestors moved with one son to Canada in 1836.  Apparently, after living in the Peterhead area, Margaret and John moved with their children to London where they had more children.  I am still scratching my head as to why the parents went to Canada with one child (Archibald) and left all the others in England (most of them minors...the oldest was born in 1817).  Strangely, I have not been able to find a trace of Margaret Cochrane and John Riddel after their passenger record in 1836.

Does anyone know of an online servants registry for the early 1800s?

Liisa