Gypsies/ Travellers in houses

[LindyLou47]

We had thought that some of my Mother's ancestors were travellers/Gypsies but on further investigation discovered that they were agricultural labourers who were employed by different farmers on a circular route of roughly 25/30 miles through 3 counties, as specific crops were ready to plant/harvest etc in different seasons. They seem to have followed roughly the same route and worked for the same farmers in each area.  Births were registered wherever they were working at the time and they stayed wherever they could, sometimes in houses with settled family who had found permanent work and others under canvas or in sheds/barns. During the winter months they would return home to their own town.

This has made tracing ancestors very difficult, especially as they tended to marry within their own circle and some of the children, born around the same time, would also have the same first and surnames.

Is it possible that the  relatives you visited were of the same kind of background ?

Linda

[Rena]

In early 1960s I had a boyfriend who worked on a farm and each summer he would be sent  to a farm further north to assist with harvesting bumper crops.  I can't recall him spending more than three weeks away from home. 

[LindyLou47]

Yes, Rena, you are quite right and in the area in which I live this still happens, but the distances are easier to cover now. So a 20 mile journey by car is a no more than half an hour.

The period in time my reply refers to is the from the 1700's to mid 1900's, so as there were no cars and agricultural workers would not have had horses, it would have made sense to move around with the job.  A much harder life than we can possibly imagine today.

From the mid 1920's to the late 1950's my Mother and later my sisters all worked for local farmers through the seasons. picking potatoes/peas/carrots or whatever was ready at the time. Being 20 odd years younger than my sisters I mostly avoided this back breaking work.  In the beginning they had to make their own way to whichever fields they were working in, by bicycle usually, but after WW2 the farmers would collect them with tractor and trailer or sometimes a horse/animal box. In both they would be seated on hay bales (if they were lucky). I remember as a child being taken along during school holidays and the days seemed really long. My Mum was the Ganger for most of this time and organised the women as and when needed.  I presume this occupation was followed because of Mum's agricultural ancestry background and her knowledge of the local farmers.

[Rena]

Large estate owners also owned wagons pulled by horses.  That's how several farm workers and their families moved about.

Depending on what type of land and how small or large the farm was, in some areas of the UK sheep and cattle would have a season up in the higher pastures and some seasons down in the valleys.

It wasn't only Heidi and Peter that moved the flock about   

[MeirSoul]

We had thought that some of my Mother's ancestors were travellers/Gypsies but on further investigation discovered that they were agricultural labourers who were employed by different farmers on a circular route of roughly 25/30 miles through 3 counties, as specific crops were ready to plant/harvest etc in different seasons. They seem to have followed roughly the same route and worked for the same farmers in each area.  Births were registered wherever they were working at the time and they stayed wherever they could, sometimes in houses with settled family who had found permanent work and others under canvas or in sheds/barns. During the winter months they would return home to their own town.

This has made tracing ancestors very difficult, especially as they tended to marry within their own circle and some of the children, born around the same time, would also have the same first and surnames.

Is it possible that the  relatives you visited were of the same kind of background ?

Linda

Yes quite possibly in some cases . Although since creating this thread I have discovered Boswells ancestors living amongst them in the same street and also living in tents with occupations described as "tinker" and "gipser" respectively