Hello
I have been working on my family history for a while and have started to wonder why so many of my ancestors and their siblings left the Dean Forest for other parts of the country, and indeed other parts of the world. Many of my coal miner Whittington ancestors left the Forest during the period 1850 to 1890 (approximately) for the coalfields of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, South Wales and the US. From what I have read, the coal mines in the Forest were still going strong at that period and there would be work available so why would they go? Would they get paid more somewhere else? Would they have a better chance of housing? Did it become easier to move away (railway development?).
I realise that this is not just an issue with my family because this website has a section of Emigration so there must have been others. Perhaps members of the forum could throw some light on why people left.
Many thanks,
Lesley

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=7674

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

I agree with your thoughts about reasons for emigration. My Forest relatives not only left the area but also changed their occupations.My wife's family came from South Pembrokeshire and in the early 1800's were coal miners. Many of them moved to the new South Wales mines where the conditions were better- better pay, new houses and railways to move the coal to the ports as well as allowing them to return to their homes on visits quite cheaply- 1d per mile or there abouts.

Hi-My wife`s ancestors were miners in Clearwell and they left around the same time as your ancestors.However census records have revealed they did return later[children`s place of birth the give away].Why they did this is a bit of a mystery.

And this is the reason for this lovely website thankfully put together so we can find our relatives all round the world. Mine emmigrated to NZ and became share milkers. What a diverse lot we are but our characters were built from those wonderful Coal Miners.

Rita James
NZ

My Coal Mining Ancestors, Between 1840 and 1900 were working in the Forest Mines and then moving to South Wales, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Coalmines and sometimes back to the Forest of Dean again. Between 1900 and 1925 I have 6 Families Emigrating to New Zealand to work in the Mines and 2 worked on the Rumeru Spiral Railway.

George Smith who started work in the Speech House Mine Moved to New Zealand in 1905 as a Miner and went on to become Mayor of Huntly. (Details of Emigration on this Site).

My Forest of Dean family worked in ironworks, steelworks, the tin industry and coal mines and there was movement to the USA, SOuth Yorkshire, South Wales (e.g. Swansea, Rhonda etc) and other places for many of them. Some who went to the USA were blacksmiths here and blacksmiths there. As stated many times before, on this website, my blacksmith ancestor moved to South Yorkshire because his employer transferred him along with five others to Yorkshire to work in a steelworks because they were regarded as his most skilled workers. I think they were made to think it was an honour to be chosen but I do not know whether ultimately it was better for the family, in fact it may well have made them worse off, financially I doubt they were any better off and they were completely separated from their social network, relatives etc. His cousin also moved to South Yorkshire but to work in the coal industry, I should imagine a deep mine in South Yorkshire would not be an improvement but the move might have been to avoid unemployment. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1820) led to many people moving from the countryside to the mechanised industries in the growing cities, - the history of Manchester is a particularly good example of this. However in the middle of the Victorian era too people continued to move into cities to work and to emigrate to the "New World". The New Poor Law was draconian so if someone faced unemployment the option of moving somewhere to work was preferable to the Workhouse or Parish relief. There is a theory (one historian whose name escapes me put much down to the introduction of the railways) that the railways were also instrumental in the mass movements of people around Britain but also around the world. People also moved into cities to work in service and those working in some industries (e.g. for particular coal owners or landowners) could be moved from the employer's factory or estate in one part of Britain to another. People might not have realised at the time but they were used as commodities to serve industry without any regard for their feelings, needs and wants.
A relative of mine moved to Australia (he was not from the Forest of Dean but married someone who was) - he was a highly skilled person in England (a silversmith) but became a labourer building railways in Australia. I went to Australia to research it and was told by the Sydney Records Office that to get an assisted passage many skilled people had to emigrate as labourers as this was the only way of getting an assisted passage with a guaranteed job. This particular relative came back to England after his first wife died.
The railways were being built all over the world by the end of the 19th Cent. and working on them led to many British people ending up in unexpected places like Argentina or France, (as is the case in my family where one person was a vicar in Argentina administering to large numbes of the English speaking railway workers and their widows and orphaned children living there, and another was born in Paris while her father was a railway engineer while its railway was being built).

The intention, as with all immigrants (including those of today) was that once money had been made they could return but the reality for many was that they could not afford to do so or their circumstances made the possibility of return too difficult.
Others may have moved for other reasons e.g. religious reasons e.g. Mormon Emigration to the USA became so large the Queen Victoria's government commissioned Charles Dickens to research why so many people were converting to this religion and leaving for the USA.

My great grandfather was an iron miner rather than a coal miner, but perhaps the circumstances are similar. He and my great grandmother emigrated to New Zealand in 1860. Most of ggf's forebears were small farmers or farm labourers in the Forest.

In NZ he was quickly able to settle on his own farm - good farmland with good water nearby, and lots of good fishing! I have not yet been able to ascertain the acreage he had in the finish, but it was immeasurably more than he would have been able to lease in the Forest, and here he was the landowner, not a tenant.

Quite quickly he brought out his young sister, and another married sister and a brother followed as well, so they must have felt there were greater opportunities here. Many people migrated for political and religious reasons, but so far as I know my great grandparents emigrated for economic opportunity. They were able to set up their children very well, so that even though only one of his sons ended up wealthy, all of our family have lived in excellent conditions - I contrast this with what I have read about the conditions of Forest life right through to Winifred Foley's descriptions of the 1920s and 1930s.

Thank you everyone who has added to my knowledge regarding the reasons for emigration from the Forest. What a fascinating story it is.
Lesley

Alison2 said:
"Between 1900 and 1925 I have 6 Families Emigrating to New Zealand to work in the Mines and 2 worked on the Rumeru Spiral Railway."

Just a minor question/possible correction Alison - do you mean the Raurimu Spiral, which is a section of the Main Trunk Railway between Auckland and Wellington? If that is the case, here are a few references for you:

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov11_06Rail-t1-body-d12.html
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/raurimu-spiral
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/engineering/2/3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raurimu_Spiral

Apologies if I am attempting to instruct a grandmother in the art of sucking eggses!

John

Many Thanks John, Yes, I got the spelling wrong. I will have a look at the Links you have given.

The aforementioned link changed when this site was updated a few years ago, for future use Slowhands' link is now
https://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=7674

Note the last few numbers are common to both links, in this case 7674, only the address "format" has changed slightly, so it's easy to correct and update any other forum links that seem broken too, just by correcting the format around the numbers.

atb J