The Places

WHERE OUR ANCESTORS CALLED HOME was by far the biggest factor in determining how they lived their lives. For the individual farm laborer or coal miner it was always the pursuit of work and the need to put bread on the table that was paramount. If the rural land on which they lived was productive and could support a few animals and crops, it might easily sustain even a large family as long as the weather cooperated. English or Irish families might remain in the same area for hundreds of years, never venturing beyond the local markets in surrounding towns and villages.

If the land became unproductive, or if the family had no land of their own, migration to other areas often followed. In the Industrial Revolution in Britain, thousands drifted to the cities in search of more rewarding work. These industrial workers were much less attached to traditional homelands, often moving from mine to mine as new pits opened, or following the fortunes of new industries, from making nails to building ships. Coal miners knew that by working for a mining company, they could be provided with colliery housing and free coal - a huge inducement.

The places themselves - whether rural hamlet, booming sea port or dockside slum - saw their own fortunes rise and fall depending on the broader economic and social trends of the nation and world.

In the United States, there was much less attachment to a specific piece of land, village or town. As the new nation pushed its frontiers westward, especially in the 19th century, the eyes and fortunes of immigrants followed, and we find people moving vast distances and attempting entirely new ways of making a living that they never would have contemplated in the “old country.”

"The Places" section of this website helps us understand more of these many and varied places around which the lives of our ancestors were entwined.  If the index on the left doesn't have a live link yet, it's coming.