London is a No No for research for me

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

I was born in London and when I started my Family Tree presumed that I would at least find some London ancestors.

But not one of my family going back 5 generations on maternal or paternal side originated from London.

Anyone had the same thing happen?

Linda

[Lin Fisher]

I am totally suprised how far my ancestors travelled and moved about.

A lot of mine moved to the big cities or towns for work as the work dried up in the villages and that could be a reason why your ancestors moved to London as well

[Jen~Ealogy]

I was born in London and when I started my Family Tree presumed that I would at least find some London ancestors.

But not one of my family going back 5 generations on maternal or paternal side originated from London.

Anyone had the same thing happen?

Linda

My experience has been the opposite to yours Linda. I was born in the north.....Manchester to be exact. Therefore, I always imagined my ancestors were all Northerners.........as it happened, I moved from the north to the West Country, then on to London where I have been for over 23 years now.
I started my research almost 7 yrs ago, and knowing absolutely nothing of the background of my ancestors, including names.......I was startled to find that all my paternal side comes from London, Bristol and the West Country. I was shocked to discover that all unknowingly, I had been following them around the country to their birth places.
Also I discovered that a large chunk of my Maternal side originated from Kent. So I guess that makes me a bit of a mongrel lol! With others coming from Stafford and Derby. The only exception to these is my paternal great grandfather who was a BS born in France.

Just as a footnote.....and apart from my great grandfather, I haven't yet discovered any ancestor who was born beyond these shores.

My mother's brother emigrated to Canada in the late 50's, but they returned after a year as his wife missed her large family too much.

[Jill on the A272]

I had it the other way round, my grandad had a broad Sussex accent and I knew he was born there but I was assured by the family that his parents actually came from Kent, turned out they were Londoners who had left the smoke behind in the 1890s for the fresh air of Sussex.

[Vivienne]

I was born in West London & grew up 'knowing', Dads family were from West London & Mums from East London with a touch of Irish on Mums side.;)
As I grew older Mum mentioned something about Dads Mum coming from somewhere north of London but I didn't take a lot of notice.
When I started FH I found Gran was born in West London but her Dad was born in Oxfordshire. Well to Mum that would have been nth of London.
Then I found that gt Gran was born in Essex, nothing north there but it was the next generation that really knocked the breath out of me!
Horror of horrors, my 2xgt Grandfather was born in Yorkshire, his wife in East London but her mother in Durham & when gt Gran was 16 in 1861 she was in a penitentiary in Yorkshire!:o
Move across to Dads Dad & although he & my gt Grandfather were London born, my 2xgt Grandfather was born in Notts!
I have had to re-evaluate my opinion of folk from north of Watford especially since my lovely soul mate was from Durham.:D
I really wish I had found my connection to Durham before he died, it would have been fun looking for my family in the areas he knew so well.:(

[Anne in Carlisle]

My ancestors moved between villages but not far.
ALL my mother's side are from Yorkshire as far back as we can go
ALL my father's side are from Bedfordshire as far back as we can go

Me? Split personality? Nah .... I was born in Yorkshire and I AM a Yorkshire lass. (Its a lot bigger than Bedfordshire for a start!)

Anne

[Vivienne]

No offense meant Anne, it's just that growing up we just thought of anyone north of Watford was thick:o.
In fact not long before I met my lovely man I was told by a Medium that I would meet someone from the north who would change & fulfill my life. My response was "rubbish, Northerners, thick as two short planks".:o
Just how wrong can anyone be, Richard was the most wonderful caring, loving person & definitely not thick. He is my soul mate & I really look forward to when we can be together again. ;D

[grumpy]

Well, I must have a bit of mongrel in me too. Mum and dad born Devon and Jersey. G/parents Essex and Jersey (3 in Jersey) and I am
a 'pure'bred Aussie.:D
David

[Lin Fisher]

Just going off track a bit my G Grandmother was born in a small village in Norfolk.

Ages after I had done most of my tree, my Sister in Law asked me to help her with hers and lo and behold her ancestors came from the same village, Hackford in Norfolk and on 1851 census my 3 x G Grandfather was living next to her ? x G Grandfathers sister. What a coincidence. Can't remember exactly with generation hers was.

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

What a small world

Linda

[Little Nell]

Censuses always show that a large proportion of London-dwellers were born elsewhere.

In my family, my Dad was born in Stoke Newington but his father was from Norfolk and his mother a first-generation Londoner, her parents coming from Warwickshire & Cambridge.
In my husband's family, his mother was born in St. Pancras and her family go back a few generations, but with Irish and Jewish branches its clear that they were immigrants too. I have found it interesting that whereas most of my rural lot were ag labbers with a few tailors and shoemakers thrown in, the London lot are all in a variety of employments - clerks, shopkeepers, etc plus a lot of working at home - watchmaking, fancy box making, plain box making and artificial flower-making.

[Anne in Carlisle]

No offense meant Anne, it's just that growing up we just thought of anyone north of Watford was thick:o.
In fact not long before I met my lovely man I was told by a Medium that I would meet someone from the north who would change & fulfill my life. My response was "rubbish, Northerners, thick as two short planks".:o
Just how wrong can anyone be, Richard was the most wonderful caring, loving person & definitely not thick. He is my soul mate & I really look forward to when we can be together again. ;D

Ha ha! We always thought Watford was IN London. In fact it is only quite recently I realised how far away from London it was!

Anne

[greyingrey]

My lot are a mixed bunch....Lithuania/Poland (not sure which) Germany, Notts/Derbys/Leics/Northants/Somerset.

I've got a friend who's explored her family extensively.....sideways too....one side PROBABLY moved down from Scotland to Durham (although she's gone back to way back when & can only find them in Durham) & she's only found the other side moving around a very limited number of Norfolk villages. The 2 sides only got together when her father was moved down to Norfolk during the Second World War. She complains all the time that they're very boring....no one committed a crime or did anything interesting

[Lindsay]

I've been surprised how many of mine were already in London in the late 1700s.

OH's, though, are mainly from Suffolk/Essex, and it makes a nice change to look through a parish register from a village where you get perhaps 12 baptisms a year, after ploughing through 40 in a day in Bethnal Green...

[Richard]

Most of my London ancestors did originally come there from elsewhere France in the 17th and 18th centuries, Ireland and Scotland in the 19th, other surrounding rural counties of England Essex, Somerset, Herts throughout that period. That said I have one line that does go right back in London to at least the 1590's, probably further but that's where the paper trail dries up. They were living next to the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch at the same time Shakespeare was debuting his plays there. As a fan, and a repressed thesp', I find that a fairly exciting thought!

[Uncle John]

Ha ha! We always thought Watford was IN London. In fact it is only quite recently I realised how far away from London it was!

And I suppose you thought you'd reached London when you passed Watford Gap Services.

[LangleyValeSue]

I grew up thinking my maternal family were Londoners through and through and my paternal family were all Canadian. How wrong I was

I have traced my maternal grandfather's family to Winchester in Hampshire, although I think (but haven't been able to prove it yet) that they originated in Somerset. My maternal grandmother's family were from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, although I have my suspicions that the male side came from Ireland. Two of my GG grandmothers (one from Grandad's side and one from Grandma's) have the same surname and come from Stockbridge in Hampshire, but I haven't found how they were related yet, maybe cousins?. Strange coincidence though as one was married in Brighton (what was my GG grandfather doing there?) and the other in Stockbridge. They must have known each other as both families eventually lived close to each other in London long before my grandparents met.

My paternal grandmother was born in Monmouth and her father's family were Worcestershire born and bred for as far back as I can find. G grandfather & his family emigrated to Canada in 1911 where Grandma met and married a Canadian whose great great grandparents were born in Scotland and emigrated to Canada in 1821!

So I am a real mixture of English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish and hardly any London blood at all

[kylejustin]

haha. good information these are. im australian, but my mother's english. my father has french, scottish, irish, english, and german.

my english lines are from all over the place though. my great grandfather was born in london, and his paternal line as far back as 1800 are londoners, i can't trace them further than that, so dont know how many generations previous were londoner's. the other counties are: yorkshire, durham, lancashire, cumberland/westmoreland, gloucester, cheshire, sussex, hampshire, rutland, leicester, essex and somerset. and all of thats in the last 150 years!

[Anne in Carlisle]

And I suppose you thought you'd reached London when you passed Watford Gap Services.

Of course!!!

Anne

[Peppie]

Censuses always show that a large proportion of London-dwellers were born elsewhere.

In my family, my Dad was born in Stoke Newington but his father was from Norfolk and his mother a first-generation Londoner, her parents coming from Warwickshire & Cambridge.
In my husband's family, his mother was born in St. Pancras and her family go back a few generations, but with Irish and Jewish branches its clear that they were immigrants too. I have found it interesting that whereas most of my rural lot were ag labbers with a few tailors and shoemakers thrown in, the London lot are all in a variety of employments - clerks, shopkeepers, etc plus a lot of working at home - watchmaking, fancy box making, plain box making and artificial flower-making.

Nell there is a pop up archeology thing in Covent Garden at the mo thought you might be interested if you're passing through town?
http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology...sCourtyard.htm