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Kelsall Social & Community History |
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| Kelsall Inhabitants migration between 1871
and 1881 ... a project to discover how far people traveled |
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| In 2001 I submitted a project essay to Oxford
University as part of my studies in Local History. Record Linkage was
undertaken between the CEB transcription for 1871 & 1881 censuses of
Kelsall, and thence those perceived as out-migrants were searched for in
the 1881 National Census of England, Scotland & Wales. Other sources
included burial records for Kelsall and the surrounding villages. To
facilitate the national search the database of the 1881 British Census
& National Index created on CD ROM by the Church of the Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints was interrogated. The project essay can be
downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat file. If you have Acrobat Reader embedded
in your browser you can read
the file on-line as a pdf document , or you can download
a zip version of the file.
The submission was marked at 75%. There are no family name records contained in this report, As an exercise to evaluate migration characteristics within Victorian local history, the comparison of nominal data has proven useful. It has been possible to confirm that even in a small agricultural village household change was very prevalent with 82 percent of all households experiencing change through either death, marriage or migration. Even so, and despite the close proximity of industrial Lancashire, rural – urban migration of only 30 percent was lower than I anticipated, with by far the majority of movers not venturing beyond a seven mile radius and remaining in some form of agricultural or domestic occupation. Long distance movers (over 40 miles) also did not fit the pattern experienced by Pooley & Turnbull, with a mean age of 55 years (excluding spouses and children). The ability not to move long distances, no doubt, was influenced by personal initiatives and family ties, the attractiveness of the destination and the ability to pay the relatively high cost of travel. In a rural community such as Kelsall funds would be restricted and much local travel would simply be on foot, with the aid of a handcart to carry belongings. For the males who traveled to the urban or industrial communities for work, they also did not fit the pattern having a mean age 27 years, perhaps due to the 42% of male migrants changing from an agricultural occupation to an industrial occupation, whilst the female domestic servants did fit the pattern with a mean age of 16 years. Nevertheless, there is evidence of rural migration that does coincide with other patterns of other studies, such as the larger emigration of males in the late 19th century and the two-thirds migration within 15-mile radius (Anderson 1990). For the migrants from Kelsall, seeking continued employment agriculture was still a prime objectiveSources & Further Reading: Anderson, M, The social implications of demographic change in The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750 – 1950, ed. F.M.L. Thompson Volume 2, pp10-13. Cambridge Transcriptions of the Census Enumerator Books 1841 – 1891 for Parish of Kelsall, Dickson D G, (1998) The 1881 British Census & National Index of England, Scotland & Wales CD Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1999. The Ancient Parishes, Townships and Chapelries of Cheshire, F I Dunn, Cheshire Record Office Cheshire Gazetteer, 2nd editions 1997, Cheshire County Council Information & Record Office. Ordnance Survey Interactive Atlas of Great Britain, 3rd edition on CD ROM Rural Life in Victorian England, G E Mingay, Sutton Publishing 1998 The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750-1950 Volumes 1-3, Cambridge 1990 reprinted 1996. Studying Family and Community History, 19th and 20th Centuries, Volume 4, Sources & Methods, Drake & Finnegan, 1997, Open University. Migration and mobility in Britain since the 18th century, Pooley C & Turnbull J, 1998, UCL Press. The Demography of Victorian England and Wales, Woods R, 2000, Cambridge. Grigg D.B. (1977) E.G. Ravenstein and the Laws of Migration in "Time, Family and Community: Perspectives on Family and Community History", Edited by Michael Drake, published by Blackwell in association with the Open University. 1994 Dickson D G, The Cheshire Township of Kelsall 1841-1891: an example of demographic change. Project report submitted to the Open University course DA301 (Studying Family & community history): 19th & 20th centuries), 1998 Published by Open University on CD ROM 2000.
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