John Cooke ( Cook), Thomas Alfred b1889 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, November 03, 2023, 02:13 (385 days ago) @ Jefff

Regarding the miners and their various migrations, this old forum thread does a good job of explaining the why and whyfores of it all, I hope it's of interest. Personally it amazed me when I first discovered how far these workers moved around, and then across the world too.
https://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=6428

I see one of that thread's posters says their ancestors left the Forest when the Yorkshire coalfield opened - I'm not sure precisely when they're talking abut as coal has been mined in Yorkshire since Roman times (when they were also mining in the Forest) and teh Yorkshire filed was definitely being worked in a big way at the same time as the Forest output peaked in the 1800s, and so drawing the vast majority of residents into the Forest which before then had been barely inhabited.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Yorkshire_Coalfield

I hope this background is of interest to you - I'm a retired mechanical and aerospace engineer, so I'm biased towards industrial hostory. Also personally I believe family history research is more about discovering how our ancestors lived their lives, and not just about chasing names and dates back as far as possible, as some researchers like to do.

atb Jeff