Robert Ritcherdson birthplace query

[Tickettyboo]

Browsing through Newcastle Libraries images on Flicker this morning I came across this photo of Mushroom Quay c1886 which you may find of interest.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0z82/

Boo

[hiatt219]

Thanks for that, Boo.  It doesn't look a great place to live, but I guess at that time you took what you could get!  Interestingly, one of the other photos in that link is of William Doxford engineering.  I also have Doxfords in the same line as Robert, though much later.  I wonder if there could be a connection there?  More research!

[Tickettyboo]

Thanks for that, Boo.  It doesn't look a great place to live, but I guess at that time you took what you could get! 

Well, no  posh expensive apartments on the banks of the Tyne back in those days. It was a working port and enormous numbers of people were jammed into a very small space to be near the work that it provided - along with the rats and all sorts of other niceties that came from living so near the river :-)

I have people on my tree who lived not far away. They came from Ireland for a chance at life. Then, as now, the newly arrived and poor folk 'did' take whatever they could get. They worked hard though, made sure that their children got as much education as they could which gave them better chances in life. Life improved steadily over the generations, we have a lot to thank them for :-)

Boo