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Go back home
Go back home, go back to the houses, go back to the villages, the streets of the towns that your ancestors knew, that your family lived in.
To walk where they have walked, to be where they have been, is a special experience. You feel so much closer to them. Even if you know very little, make a start, prepare as best you can, it could lead you further than you thought.
Begin where your nearest and dearest live. Give your relatives a list of questions to answer. Ask them also, to tell you what they remember, or what they were told. They may know more than they think.
What does that place look like now? Try Google Earth, look for old postcards, maps and atlases, names and derivations. Check out local history groups. It may be that you have to do all this several times, if your family has moved over the generations.
In the 1870s many people had to leave their homes due to the agricultural recession. My own family on both sides included Ag Labs (agricultural labourers) who lost their jobs, and with that their tied cottages.
This happened to my mother’s family, the Hedges family of Amesbury, Wiltshire. But they learnt of the expansion of the port of Newhaven, East Sussex, under the management of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company. The harbour was to be dredged to allow a steamer to dock. This would become the Newhaven-Dieppe Boat Train. For this to happen, a new quay had to be built, rail line laid, homes for workers built, and a quarry dug for gravel and sand to make cement. This was a great Victorian engineering event.
The Hedges men were fortunate to find railway work in Newhaven. One, Jessie Frank, became a steam crane driver at the quarry, another a train driver, others station staff. All had secure employment, as long as there
