I was intrigued to read your reply to the query about railway employees as I am descended on both sides from a long line of railwaymen and women. (I was the first in 6 generations not to follow this career). Although this is not specific to Bucks, I decided to post to the site as well, as it is of general interest. My first railway ancestor was William Wraith, born in Hollingbourne, Kent around 1804, I have not been able to reliably pin down his birthdate from the PR's. He was married in Taunton, Somerset in 1834 to Ann Icely, born Woolwich, Kent around 1812. They were both far from home and their witnesses were either friends or employers. William gave his occupation as servant, which could mean many things. However they moved to Wakefield, Yorks around 1840 and by 1841 his occupation was Railway Inspector. By 1851 he was the station master in Wakefield. In your previous response you made reference to the difficulty in getting a job as a station employee. I have often wondered how a country boy from Kent, working far from home, managed to get what was probably a very good job at the other end of the country. He obviously got into the business at the very beginning. Do you have any thoughts on this? I don't recall having seen you mention your railway ancestors before in your many postings so was interested to see the comment. My Dimmock line were yeoman farmers in Bedfordshire around Wootton. William Dimmock, son of a yeoman farmer was born 1805, became a tenant farmer (coincidentally near Sherington I think) as his inheritance wasn't very big. His son Barnard, b 1831, worked on the farm at first, then moved to Newport Pagnell where he became a corn merchant. His father William retired and lived with him. The business presumably failed as both father and son then went to work on the railway, the old boy as a porter and the son as a labourer at Wolverton loco works. The family then moved to Derby where many of them worked in the loco and carriage & wagon works. The story seems to be typical of the move from working on the land to industrial towns. Any comments would be of interest. Regards David Wraith -----Original Message----- From: Eve McLaughlin [mailto:eve@varneys.demon.co.uk] Sent: 10 December 2004 23:07 To: BUCKS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [BKM] Buckinghamshire History In message <31137154.1102707512104.JavaMail.root@waldorf.psp.pas.earthli nk.net>, Lynda Roberts <lmr8h@earthlink.net> writes >Can anyone tell me what would have made a railway employee from Sherrington, >Bucks, move to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1870s? Was there a big economic >boom going on that area that attracted men from Bucks? Railwaymen were very mobile and went where their company sent them. But was he a builder or a station employee? To an extent, they were still building railways in the 1870s - my grandfather built railways and he and his gang went all over the country, and his wife went with him, so no two children were born in the same location in the same visit. And once the railways were built, they had to be manned and maintained, so men could get drafted from anywhere -you didn't normally just turn up at a station and ask to be a porter - it was a matter of great competition. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society ==== BUCKS Mailing List ==== BGS Website: http://www.bucksgs.org.uk/ BFHS Website: http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk/ Bucks Genuki Website: http://met.open.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/BKM/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This electronic message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Information Technology Group immediately on - 020-7413-9600. Do not disclose the contents to any other person, use it for any purpose, or store or copy the information in any medium. Any opinion expressed in this message or any attachment is not necessarily the opinion of Teknica UK Ltd. We make every effort to keep our network free from viruses although we can take no responsibility for any computer virus which may be transferred by way of this e-mail. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *