Myths debunked when doing family histroy.

[sonofthom]

My wife's family lived in Newington a few generations back, but this was in the south of Edinburgh. It must be quite a common place name.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Not as common as I expected - my road atlas, which has a good index, only lists 4, but not including one near Edinburgh!

[DianaCanada]

There are lots of Newtons too - surnames and places, Newington might be a longer version.  One of my Newington shows up as Newenton so an easy leap to Newton over the years.

[MollyC]

Most "locative" surnames arose originally because people had moved away from that place.  "Tom from Newington" as opposed to "Tom the Baker" who has always lived here.

[DianaCanada]

Most "locative" surnames arose originally because people had moved away from that place.  "Tom from Newington" as opposed to "Tom the Baker" who has always lived here.

Yes.  No point being called John of Newington when there are dozens of other Johns there.

[Erato]

Another myth debunked is "Until about 1900, 99.9% of people never travelled more than 10 miles or so from their birthplace".

Why anyone would have swallowed this myth is beyond me.  There have been footloose people since the dawn of time.  They walked out of Africa, across Asia, crossed the Bering land bridge to North America and then spread south as far as Patagonia.  Meanwhile, others were sailing in rickety canoes to Australia and the Pacific islands.  Walking from one English county to another was child's play and plenty of children did it when their families pulled up stakes and looked for greener pastures elsewhere or for job opportunities in the cities.

[sylvia (canada)]

My father's family originate in Buckinghamshire.

In the mid-1840s, the brother (and his family) of my direct ancestor emigrated to Australia on some kind of recruited passage.

About 10 years later, his nephew and niece both emigrated with their families under an Agricultural Recruitment Passage. The nephew later emigrated from Australia to California, taking passage on a Mormon ship. I think he and the family were expected to go on to Utah, but they settled in California, becoming well-known pioneers in a certain area of that state. There's no sign they ever converted, but they obviously got a cheap passage!

Sounds reminiscent of the 10 Pound scheme of the 1950s and '60s!

[coombs]

Another myth debunked is "Until about 1900, 99.9% of people never travelled more than 10 miles or so from their birthplace".

Why anyone would have swallowed this myth is beyond me.  There have been footloose people since the dawn of time.  They walked out of Africa, across Asia, crossed the Bering land bridge to North America and then spread south as far as Patagonia.  Meanwhile, others were sailing in rickety canoes to Australia and the Pacific islands.  Walking from one English county to another was child's play and plenty of children did it when their families pulled up stakes and looked for greener pastures elsewhere or for job opportunities in the cities.

I have one direct ancestor who emigrated from England to the US in 1886 to join 2 married daughters out there. And one sent to Australia in 1791. Goes to show how a trek 40 miles on a wagon, or on foot from Ipswich to Chelmsford in 1800 easy in comparison.

[DianaCanada]

The mention of the year 1900 - could that be an error?  I might find 1800 more believable, but with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the building of the railways, people in the 19th century moved for work and later, travelled to the seaside or to visit friends and family.  And walking or taking the horse and cart more than ten miles was likely fairly commonplace.