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? Lynda Roberts USA

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