Emigration of coal miners (General)

by jhopkins , Sunday, May 23, 2010, 04:58 (5376 days ago) @ lesleyr

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.