DEVON-L Archives

Archiver > DEVON > 2010-12 > 1293474328


From: Jason Austin <>
Subject: Re: [DEV] Migration from Devon to London
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 10:25:30 -0800
References: <SNT103-W645A398DFB54505A99994D21D0@phx.gbl>
In-Reply-To: <SNT103-W645A398DFB54505A99994D21D0@phx.gbl>


Hello Helen

Congratulations! - you have now reached the most fascinating part of
family history - the "why" stage.

I think most of us begin with the intent of connecting the dots, but
eventually we are drawn into questions of why did they move?? My
experience was similar to yours, I had Austin's in Clyst Honiton for
generations then suddenly all but one family vanished in the early part
of the 1800's, most of them reappearing in London And this is where
the really fun part is because it draws us into the social history of
the time that we will feel closer to because it was something our
ancestors lived through. In my case and yours, the huge event of the
time was the end of the war with the French in 1815. England had been
bled white for many years with the cost of the war and the conscription
of the working men into the armed forces - and economic depressions
invariably follow the end of war even for the victors. Add to this the
effect of releasing thousands of men from the army and navy back into
civilian life and you have another destabilizing effect.

We can't begin to comprehend the conditions of those days if we try to
look at the past through the eyes of today. Much has been written and
is available on the web but in order to get a balanced view of the
England then, it is useful to read accounts from as many different
backgrounds as possible, because each brings its own bias. For the bulk
of us with working class ancestors we not likely to find anything
written by people of that background, only about them if we are lucky.
Take a look for example at this article in the New York Times of October
30 1881
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F1061FF93E5F15738DDDA90B94D8415B8184F0D3
that quotes from somewhere "To statesmen, the State as a unit, was all
in all, and it is really difficult to find any evidence that people were
thought of at all, except in relation to obedience" and "The
Government regarded the people with little other view than as a taxable
and soldier-yielding mass." The whole article is well worth reading,
and worth reading slowly to savour and grasp the appalling conditions
being described.

There is an interesting book on a lighter vein titled "England in 1815
as seen by a young Boston merchant."
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7051785M/England_in_1815_as_seen_by_a_young_Boston_merchant
who mixes with the business class and gives some indication of his more
puritan views.

And there is a more academic, almost vitriolic, treatise at
http://books.google.ca/books?id=qY89AAAAIAAJ&dq=england+1815&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=W8oYTazqC5S6sQOEr4igCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q&f=false
<http://books.google.ca/books?id=qY89AAAAIAAJ&dq=england+1815&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=W8oYTazqC5S6sQOEr4igCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q&f=false>;
called "Class and conflict in nineteenth-century England, 1815-1850".

These are just a sampling of the myriad of sources available to us on
the internet, and once you start delving into it you will likely find,
as I did, that it begins to put the flesh on the bones of your ancestors
that previously you referred to by dates. And as you keep reading you
may find your ancestors begin to gather clothes too. Continue to read
and you may arrive at the day when you hear them talking to you.


Jason
Victoria, BC

Helen Kevan wrote:

>
> Hi
>I am in Australia and a novice at family history research. Angela's recent email reminded me of a question in my family search.
>James and Agnes Cole were married in Bishops Nympton in 1800 and he is listed as a sojourner.
>I am looking for any clue as to why James and Agnes Cole's last child [Mary Bale Cole] was born in Tooting ca 1818? I know gypsies supposedly moved about a lot, but the Coles seem to have been very settled in the Bishops Nympton area. The previous child, Eleanor, was born in 1813, the largest gap in the birth pattern. Charles Cole doesn't list anyone after Eleanor, and there is no apparent connection with any other family event that would take them so far from Devon. Ann married Edward Eales in London in 1828, but most of the children married from 1834 onwards in Devon, and Agnes died at BN in 1837, so they'd obviously gone back there. Maybe there are school or other records to show if the Coles left Devon for a while - might also explain why Ann went to London.
>
>
>
>Helen Kevan
>
>
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