Genealogy Chat

Hi
I have tried to find a thread for this subject which I saw a while ago.There were some interesting contributions as to why families seemed to move quite often from their rented and quite often shared houses in the 1880s and 90s.
Can anyone shed light on the reasons for frequent moving(and probably moonlight flitting!)

cheers

Mike

On the subject of 'moonlight flits' when researching my family I came across this account given by Joseph Lee, b.1899, about his childhood in Bethnal Green/Hackney area:

" Move around, I couldn't begin to tell you how many rooms we lived in. You didn't get a whole house then, you got a room along with five or six other families, and made the best of it. I don't know how landlords made a living because everyone was at the same game. The first day you moved into a new place you'd have to put up the full week's rent, which could be as much as five or six shilllings. The next friday you'd keep quiet when the rent man knocked and the Friday after you'd make a dreadful excuse and promise to pay the following week. But instead of that, on the Thursday night all your bits and pieces would be slung in a barrow - I don't suppose there was hardly enough stuff to fill it - and you'd do what they called a "moonlight" and on to the next lodgings"

This was the common reality of life for many city dwellers, always on the move. I posted on this on the previous subject. Apparantly the old Music Hall song "my old man said follow the van, and don't dilly dally on the way" was so popular at the time because it well reflected reality for much of the contempory audience , it starts thus:

"We had to move away, 'cos the rent we couldn't pay,
The moving van came round just after dark;
There was me and my old man, shoving things inside the van,
Which we'd often done before let me remark."

Emphasis on the last line, which nicely backs up Joseph Lees account!

Many thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.I have ancestors who moved around the country for work but I was more interested in my great grand dad from Newcastle upon Tyne.
It seems like everyone of his eight children was born at a different address every other year through the 1880s and 90s! It just seems sad that as a skilled marine engine fitter he was at times living in three rooms of a house with his six children and another family of six or seven in the other three rooms.In this particular house he was at the time a foreman engine fitter.How little was he earning?
Sorry,rambling again but there always seem to be more questions than answers!

thanks again

Mike

If he was a marine engineer he would have moved to where the work was.
As for living in 3 rooms, it was quite common, people didn't seem to have the same idea of comfort that we do.
My great grandfather bought his 2 up 2 down house in southampton in the 1850's and even when my mum was a girl living there in the 1930's/40's, there was a family of 7 living upstairs while my grandparents and 3 children lived downstairs! It was all extra income.

maggie

When I was a toddler in the 50s my parents lodged in 2 rooms of a house in London. One living room cum bedroom and a small kitchenette.

My parents rented 2 rooms in the 50's & 60's also sharing a toilet with the family downstairs, this was in Dalston,Hackney. Poor times then, we never had a bathroom till 1967 once we moved.

Thanks again friends for your family memories. Maggie, I dont think great grandad had to move much for his work as a marine engine fitter in Newcastle. Most of his addresses were in the Byker area and he once moved just a few houses down the road!

cheers again

Mike