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Post by cowdogsam on Jun 18, 2010 14:19:42 GMT -5
Not sure if this is in the right place or not.
I've got ancestors in two different parts of Cornwall, the West Penwith area and in the Camelford area. Two different lines, differnt occupations. During the 1870's both lines left Cornwall for other parts of the UK, and ironically both ended up in Yorkshire.
The question is during the 1870's how would they have travelled. I'm assuming, that the ones from West Penwith area would have travelled by boat, and landed somewhere in the Whitby / Middlesborough area, but the ones from Camelford?
What are the most likely options, and are there likely to be any records kept for people travelling to other parts of the UK, rather than emigrating?
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Post by frenchie on Jun 18, 2010 15:04:02 GMT -5
:-/not sure if I am right or not but some of my husbands Cornish ancestors left Cornwall to work in other mines in different parts of the country - wales etc
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Post by cowdogsam on Jun 18, 2010 15:24:44 GMT -5
Hi Frenchie, Welcome to the board
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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jun 18, 2010 18:34:26 GMT -5
Firstly - I would also like to welcome Frenchie to our small but growing gathering here. Now, the 1870s would be a time when more options would be available and I should think not least of these would be the Railways. I don't know the patterns of the rail networks but I think it is something that should be considered. In West Cornwall I think Penzance is the most Westerly Railway Station so it would not be so difficult to travel perhaps to Devon (or on to London) and then North to places like Yorkshire. The sea route would be there still but the rail would be less hazardous. As people would be travelling within the Country I would doubt much chance of finding any records unless they were amongst family letters. If your ancestors travelled in search of work then it would be unlikely you would find much except for the fact that they were in Cornwall in one Census and then in Yorkshire (for example) in the next. If, however, employment was secured prior to leaving Cornwall then it may be possible that some records were kept by the Firms. And that would mean tracking down those places of employment and then researching to see if any records still exist - and where they may be. Not much but I hope it is of some help or gives you some more clues. CT
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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jun 18, 2010 18:54:54 GMT -5
Try a Google search for 'Railways in Cornwall' and you will find some interesting information. For example - the Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge line and the section from Plymouth to Truro was opened in 1859. That certainly offers potential for alternative ways to get from West Penwith to places North. CT
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Post by Mal on Jun 19, 2010 4:16:41 GMT -5
God's Wonderful Railway as my Gran called it.... GWR. Brunel's bridge opened in 1859 and so by the 1870's I reckon most people would have been using the rail link and not ships.
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Post by cowdogsam on Jun 19, 2010 5:21:34 GMT -5
Thank you both for that. I remember looking quite a while ago as the railways were my first instinct too, and for some reason had it in my head that the GWR line didn't make it past Bristol at the time the Camelford crew left, which was mid 1870's. I shall have to go and start looking into that possibility all over again now.
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Post by sue on Jun 19, 2010 5:31:55 GMT -5
In January, then again just repeated, there was a great UK TV series about how the railways changed Britain in the 19th century. The slots covering Cornwall have just passed their repeat availability on BBC Iplayer , but they'll be around again. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pykggwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pykgg/episodes/2010Great filming, beautiful shots, clear story-telling. In my own family, the non-Cornish side got way up North in the 1870s by working for the railways and settling as signalman in Chester-le-Street, the railway being a huge growth industry in employment. Sue
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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jun 19, 2010 5:36:08 GMT -5
Keep the options open. At least the Airlines can be ruled out! ;D Another thing to consider is the newspapers and you might be lucky enough to find some mention of the family in The West Briton. CT
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Post by cowdogsam on Jun 19, 2010 7:17:53 GMT -5
Thanks for the links Sue. I don't know how I missed those, as that is the kind of program that would normally be set to record. Out of curiosity which lines do you have that ended up in Chester-le-street? That's not far from where some of my lot ended up. All the West Penwith ones at that. You didn't end up with any around the Whickham, Marley Hill, Sunniside area did you? CT - Yes I think it's safe to rule out the airlines. Don't get me started on the newspapers not yet anyway
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Post by white on Jun 19, 2010 7:18:29 GMT -5
My greatgrandparents left St.Just/Sancreed around 1863 for Tredegar, S.Wales. I pondered for some time as to how they made the journey. In the end it was pointed out to me that they probably left via Hayle for Swansea. Coasters carrying tin ore for smelting. The return journey taking coal to Cornwall. Presumeably many peoplegot to South Wales that way.
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Post by davidkingmartin on Jun 19, 2010 7:32:20 GMT -5
We tend to under-rate the levels of "internal migration" in Victorian Britain. An example I know of is a distant relative:Andrew Nicholls Ninnes, born 1866 Towednack, resident 1881 Glossop,Derbs., along with several siblings, two of whom married locally. Census returns indicate that parents (William N. and Mary Nicholls) and children were employed in the local cotton mills....a "boom town" at the time. Glossop is located 12 miles east of Manchester. David
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Post by sue on Jun 19, 2010 8:05:56 GMT -5
Cowdogsam: Stupid of me not to have mentioned that TV series here when it was all still showing! Devon & Cornwall just glowed! 2 immediate line Curnows left Cornwall 1920s a) by we think that boat to Swansea, settling in Port Talbot & b) prob by train to Nottingham, both leaving for that glorious promised better life in industrial centres. My non-Cornish side GGfather left rural Norfolk, picked up a wife part-way in Goole Yorkshire in the 1870s, daughter of a railway worker, and then spent 40 years as signalman at Chester-le-Street station, living in the Railway Cottages. GNR, as opposed to GWR. But no Cornish connection on that side. My remaining "close" living relative still living down there in St Ives, Cornwall spent his working life as a fisherman, spurning the more "modern" ways of earning a living. It seems like maybe half the actual residents of the St Ives area of Cornwall today are Brummies, many descendants of those internal UK emigrants of the late 19th & early 20th century, who went on family holidays back to their roots & thought: Midlands vs Cornwall? No contest! (Forgive me, Midlanders; but I was myself born in Meriden, so technically they don't come more Midland than me! ;D) But of course unless you can work from home on the old computer, just like 100+ years ago there is little decently remunerated work in Cornwall still. Sue
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Post by Mal on Jun 19, 2010 8:28:03 GMT -5
Interesting thread here.... Going back even further I think sometimes we overestimate how much people stayed put too! Obviously centuries ago there was probably less migration but I have many examples of people who seem a lot more mobile than might be expected- at a relatively early date too. Don't forget that London has always drawn people, there's a village not too far from my Gran's called "London Apprentice" and I was told it was where the apprentice boys stopped on their way to and from London. I have found a few connections between Cornwall and London and then back again in the late 18th century. In the 16th century I have quite a bit of moving around from Devon and Cornwall and even unearthed a hitherto "unknown" Cornish connection to Kilkhampton and environs. Back futher still the Bretons and the French pop up with a few Dutch/Flemish to boot. One interesting line is the Daniell family, a Cornishman from Truro, Richard Daniell when to Middelburg (not Middlesborough as on IGI) and married a widow Van Meghen and their son Alexander came back to Cornwall and had a family. There may well be quite a lot of Daniells in Cornwall who are unsuspectingly Dutch! LOL!!! Whip out the pancakes and the waffle irons with a bit of clotted cream! Yum... Upshot, we're all a lot more mixed up than we think!
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Post by tonymitch on Jun 19, 2010 18:31:55 GMT -5
Hi folks.......My family 'tradition' states that they left St Just and moved to Millom, Cumberland, by train, and it took three days.......The problem I have is (1) family 'tradition' is notoriously inaccurate (e.g. G-g-mama went to South Africe to nurse the soldiers in the Boer War....two years After the war finished!) (2) The family moved in at least two stages....one lot before 1881 and the other lot possibly in 1890...so which lot took three days to move?
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