Sorry - for Stephen Fry, please read Jeremy Paxman - they are not often confused! Graham ----- Original Message ----- From: "Graham Stanley" <graham_stanley@tiscali.co.uk> To: <OXFORDSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 5:30 PM Subject: [OXF] Transport links to the Black County > It turns out that my family (JARVIS) who lived in Walsall, Staffs for most > of the C19th, originated from a tiny village in Berkshire (now Oxon) - > Aston Tirrold. A couple of brothers, Thomas (b 1811) and Isaac (b 1822), > both married women from Walsall around 1845 and raised their families > there. > I know from asking this question on the Berkshire List, that rural life at > this time was far from idyllic (Swing riots, famine, transportation and > the like). Clearly they needed employment but what possessed them to go as > far as the Black Country? Was there some sort of assisted passage scheme > to take the Berkshire or Oxfordshire rural poor to the industrial > midlands, as happened to Stephen Fry's East Anglian ancestors in Who Do > You Think You Are? Was there an obvious transport link (railway/ canal)? > Any ideas how/why the brothers might have ended up in faraway Walsall > gratefully recd. > Graham > Twickenham > > > ==== OXFORDSHIRE Mailing List ==== > Check for others with matching interests on > OXSIL, the Oxfordshire surname interest list, at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~oxsil/ > >