[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

You are right Retlaw about the discrepancies in the recording of things.
Another thing that sometimes trips you up is that someone who you think might belong on your tree pops up somewhere like Ealing.
Now back (early 1800's) most people stayed with a couple of miles of where they were born.
But, it is crazy to discount these possibilities until you have done further research.
One of my rellies lurked in the 'shoebox' for ages....until I found an early census with him on it, then a later one with his occupation as 'servant'...so he had moved away from his birthplace to find work...but later returned, married, but was still itinerant, because he was a commercial traveller....so again, he and his family popped up in Warwickshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Tracing your ancestors is definitely a pursuit that COULD make you insane...it certainly turns my brain to porridge.

Back in those days, yes most folk didn't move very far from home, but it wasn't always the case with their children, especially if they lived in a rural area, many girls had to become servants, and then traveled with their new masters & mistresses, my own grandmother was born in Scotland, and finished up as a servant in Whalley Abbey.
Young lads could get jobs on the land if they had strong backs, many joined the army some as young as 14, one lad of 15 was killed at the battle of Rourkes Drift.
Then we have the Irish famine, they were constantly moving around Lancashire looking for work, marrying, then moving again, some eventualy going back to Ireland.
Then you get the Navvies, they did travel a heck of a lot, my Gt Grandma married a navy, and ended up having their first child in France, then back to England, then eventually she ended up in Baxenden, where my grandad was born, where her husband went to - who knows I don't