« Reply #17 on: Monday 19 July 21 12:53 BST (UK) »
Not this old chestnut again!. You are comparing it with the distances travelled America which is about 2500 miles in width, I am in the UK and 150 miles is a long way for us.
I'm in the UK and, at that time, I had ancestors travelling from Scotland to North Wales. From North Wales to Co Durham (in the 1840s), and to London and Yorkshire, etc,. etc. Not mentioning those who went to North America, Australia and New Zealand.
By then, not only had roads and shipping improved but canals (some 50 years earlier in some cases) and railways existed. This was the age of high industrialisation - e.g. the Great Exhibition was held in 1851.
Any social and economic history book covering that period would show all this.
Add -Gaskell's North and South is worth reading if you prefer contemporary novels
And mine, several of my direct ancestors moved around all over the country and one even went to the US in 1886. But 150 miles is still quite a way, even if many people did travel that far and more. I have an ancestor from Algarkirk in Lincs who was in Colchester Essex by 1550 when she married. She mentioned rellies in Lincolnshire in her will and found her dad came from Algarkirk.
Researching:
LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain