General Chat

I expect you're all sitting there thinking 'What is she on about? I live at home!' :D
I'm talking though about your roots and ancestral home. I thought it would be interesting to see how far families have travelled. No locations necessary though if you don't want to.
For example:
We live about 4 miles from where my Hubby's family on his father's side lived in the 1700s. We also live only about 6 miles from his Mother's side back to the 1700s as well.
Whereas I live several hundred miles from any of my ancestral roots.
His family stayed close to 'home' until the mid 1800s on when a few of them moved not just a little way away but from Norfolk to Northumberland and then onto Australia, and also from Suffolk to Cambridgeshire and onto the Portsmouth area and beyond.

So how far is everyone else from their roots?

Now that is an interesting question, and something i think we don't always take into account..............

I live in Kent - obviously lol - and I discovered that one of my GGt G'Father's ancestors lived about 2 miles from where I live.

Other than that I am kind of surround by 'home' as they all came in from Dorset; Sussex; Oxfordshire; Norfolk and London - so as the crow flies i guess i am right at the heart of my roots :O))

You aren't too far away then McAnne.
My side started mainly in Wales and Ireland, and came via Australia and Canada to Cornwall. Now being in Norfolk I'm way away, but strangely feel very at home here.

Morning Sally,

I live 5 miles from were i was born 7 miles from were mom and dad were born and 20 miles were my 3x grandfather born and back to 5 miles 4x gfather on my fathers side some have move to Australia.

Still working on my moms side.

Joan G

i'm from Portsmouth and have been on one side for generations....another side is from Cornwall and others from Ireland and some from Surrey but then they came to Portsmouth too,

Karen x

Sally - I have been to parts of the UK where I have instantly felt 'at home' without realising why - for example Edinburgh - then i found out my maternal roots are there ..............

Morning,

I live 75 miles from where I was born, in Derbyshire.
Maternal ancestors were all from Gloucs until late 1800's when my ggrandfather moved up to Derbyshire.Paternal ancestors all from Scotland until 1940's, when Dad met Mum.
Hubbys paternal side, all from the next village to where I was born (wierd, as I never knew them when I was growing up) traced them back to 1700's, his maternal side Warwickshire & Leics and Scotland, still tracking them :)
I'm sort of half way between my roots, geographically.

They say theres no place like 'home', I felt at 'home' in Perth :)

I am in Gloucestershire, my roots on my Father's side are in Derbyshire, Hampshire and Dorset. And on my Mother's side in Somerset, Hampshire and Staffordshire. (I grew up in Hampshire).


Karen, you've lost your castle!!!
Ann
Glos

McAnne

I had that feeling with Wells Next the Sea a few years ago & then discovered my gr gr grandparents & family lived there for decades

I was born in London but now live in Somerset - not far from the village where my mother was born. Her ancestors have strong Somerset roots so I am lucky now to be able to visit their villages.

My father's ancestors are mainly Yorkshire, but he moved to Devon as a child, then London after he married. Unfortunately it is unlikely I will ever get up to Yorkshire for a visit, and it is quite probable that the areas his family lived in have now all been demolished.

My family didnt go far at all - and I am still there. My mums side are all from Ilkeston Derbyshire, Eastwood Nottinghamshire, Kimberley Nottinghamshire - all miners and farmers all the way back to 1695 which is as far as I have got.. And I am still here - smack bang in the middle of all of them places lol. Not a very adventurous family it seems.

On the other hand, my dads side are from Newcastle and birmingham - dont know if they stayed or not as I havent got that far on the records.

Emma x

yep Ann,thought it was about time the xmas name went,

Karen x

I live so close I would knock myself out lol

I live in what was my maternal grandparents house and what was my parents house is just up the road about 20 doors away!

My father's father have come from originally France, to Cornwall, to Wales to Bristol.

My father's mother's family have come from Wales have not found anything different as yet.

My mother's mother came from gloucestershire to Weston-super-Mare and my mother's father came from Dorset to Weston-supe-Mare and then both of them to Bristol - which is the house I am living in to this day.

So all in all it is fairly close to be honest not sure of the milege of each but Bristol seems to be pretty central for all of it.

Tina

Im 90 mins drive away. Live near Coventry but my (as I consider it) home is Mansfield. Genealogy speaking, my home is everywhere. Exeter, Branscombe, Derbyshire, London, Bridgend, Leeds, Sussex, Kent, Sweden, Nottingham.

I still live in the house I was born in, so my son is the third generation to have lived here.

On my mother's side most of the ancestors came from within 30 miles or so from here, but on my dad's side they lived in Cheshire, 150 miles away from here, but they originated in Ireland.

Dianne xx

Up until last July, I had lived at the same address for 26 years in London - previous to that I had a flat for 1 year in the adjacent street. I had moved into London in my late teens having been brought up in Huntingdon and Kent then Cyprus - but ended up in Kennington, South London. I had absolutely no idea that my ancestors had lived in the very same street that my first flat was in - and even when I moved I was only 1 street away!!

It was such a shock to read on my Grt Grt Grandfather's marriage cert that he was living in Wickham Street at the time of his marriage - and that is where I had lived for a year - a very tiny little backstreet of Lambeth! How amazing is that, eh? (although back then it would have been houses, not flats).

Those ancestors had lived in that street (and families in the adjacent streets) since the early 1800s, generation after generation until finally, in the early 1900s they began moving out of London and into ... Kent! And that's where I now live LOL!

I feel like I'm playing a game of chase with them!

Athena

Hi Sally,

I live in Essex not too far from where my Maternal Grandmother's family originated.

Spookily, I changed my job when I started researching and the job takes me to the very fields my Maternal grandfather's family would have worked and originated from in Norfolk.

My brother moved to Somerset a stone's throw from where my fathers paternal family came from, we didn't know this then.

I just need something for the paternal Grandmother in Co. Meath Ireland, never been ther, but I know I'm destined to.

Tina x

My side of the family all came from north wales, the other side is from lancs, I live in the same town as my fathers family lived, I have connection with s wales and Ireland, and lately new zealand,

Jean x

Just think what problems future generations will have finding us on the census. I live 600 miles from my birthplace.

My dad's paternal line lived in the Ormskirk area for c. 230 years (the furthest direct ancestor to Dad so far kindly lived until after 1851 so I had chance to check where he was born!) - so, about 45 miles away. (I'm actually going on another hunt round there soon.)

My paternal gran's line were from nearby Aughton, but a branch of her mother's line can be traced to Worcester, then Essex then London.

My mum's paternal side seem to have been everywhere - began in Suffolk, visited Essex, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincs., one strand ended up in Liverpool, so with them it depends who you're looking at.

Her mum's side are easier - one lot stayed within c.20 miles of Grantham, some others went to Alfreton and similar coal mining areas in the Notts/Derbys locality.