The move to London

[joboy]

In the early 1800's the Industrial Revolution attracted thousands of folk from the countryside to London and 'aglabs' took on better paid and more constant work than they were getting than they were with unreliablity of farm work.
It is said that at the start of the 19th century 1/5 of Britain's population lived in London.
Five branches in my family tree have been found to have moved there at that period and they came from Ireland, Somerset,Wiltshire,Yorkshire and Berkshire.
Has anybody noted similar situations?
joboy

[Nick29]

Yes, and the work was not just industrial.   More wealth in the big cities meant more demand for domestic servants, who were both male and female.

[LizzieW]

None of my ancestors moved to London, although g.grandad moved from London to Hull. 

Lizzie

[DianneReuby]

Both my fathers family and my husbands family moved to London in the 1800s. My fathers moved from Suffolk, my husbands fathers family from Ireland, his mothers family from Devon.

[behindthefrogs]

None of my ancestors moved to London, although g.grandad moved from London to Hull. 

Lizzie

You must have an interesting family tree if your great grandfather moved from London in the early 1800s.

I also have ancestors who moved away from London but that was in the 17th century to avoid the plague.

[Gillg]

Most of the young women in my Hunts village family became domestic servants in London in the late 1800s.  One of them went on to marry one of Queen Victoria's footmen!  My gt-grandfather moved to London to become a policeman, but returned to his Hunts village and took up his old job as a shoemaker after around 5 years.  By 1880 there were no more ag labs in the family.  However, life in the capital was pretty hard, too, especially for poor families, who lived in dreadful cramped and dirty conditions.

Gillg

[Ermintrude46]

Seven out of my eight great-grandparents converged on London between 1871 and 1891 from Sussex, Dorset, Durham, Hampshire & Berkshire.  Two sets of young married couples, two as young teenagers with their widowed mothers and younger siblings only and one with both parents and all siblings when the Rector who employed his father as a footman died.  All no doubt looking for a better life and a new start, but not always finding it, alas.
Ermy

[Jeuel]

All my ancestors started off, as far as I can trace them, in rural villages.

One of my gt x 2 grandfathers, John Smoothy,  moved from Essex to London, his wife Ann Chowns from Buckinghamshire to London, both domestic servants.




My Cornish gt grandmother Emma Broad moved to London to work in domestic service [all except one of her sisters followed, and 2 of her brothers emigrated to New Zealand]. 

My Norfolk grandfather Jeuel Gray and 4 of his brothers came to London.  The brothers all joined the police [one in the City and the others in the Met].  Grandfather wasn't able to join as he wasn't tall enough, so he worked in a brewery then a distillers, before opening a picture framer's shop in Stoke Newington.  Jeuel's wife Annie was born in London but her father came from a village in Warwickshire and her mother from Cambridge.

By the 1911 census none of my ancestors were ag labs.  The agricultural depression, coupled with better transport through the railways and more educational opportunities meant they no longer relied on poorly paid seasonal work.  The women were still domestic, but able to travel further afield to find employment.

[coombs]

My Sussex born ancestor moved to London in 1864 with her Kent born husband. Their baby was just a few months old and she was the firstborn and my ancestor.

My Essex born 3xgreat grandfather and my Oxfordshire born 3xgreat gran wed in London in 1866.

I have a Norfolk branch who moved to London in the 1780s and French Huguenot. Plus I believe some West Country ancestors George and Sarah Coombs born about 1790 moved to London. Sarah is on 1841 but she died before 1851 and George died in 1831.

My Durham born great grandad was in the army and stationed in London during WW1 and met my London born great gran there and he whisked her off to Durham once he left the army.