Andrew: I assume that, coming from Roscommon, your family were Roman Catholics. Is that is so, then perhaps they were attracted to a district where there already was a Catholic population. I realise that in England that usually meant Lancashire and in Scotland one of many places on the west coast, from Glasgow all the way north. However, if they did decide to proceed further east, and weren't tempted to settle in the "Tyne Gap", where there were other Catholic congregations, especially around Hexham, then, if the industrial urban environment didn't appeal, they might well have ended up in north Northumberland, where there were Catholic churches in several places, including Haggerston Castle, Berwick, Wooler, Ellingham, and Callaley and Eslington, both in Whittingham parish, among no doubt other places. Remember that the places given as birthplaces in census returns are not necessarily the actual birthplaces. They are supposed to be the "Town or Parish" where they had been born. In a rural area that means the parish, some of which were large and included many places other than the one the parish was named after - ie the one where the parish church was. There will be places in Northumberland where one could be in Alnwick parish, but in a single pace be in Embleeton parish, so don't read too much into them being different places, unless you have a more precise address to go on. At the time, the NE of England was booming, with jobs available not only in railway building but in coal mines, shipyards, engineering works, etc. I'm not sure that there were that many jobs available in agriculture due to the displacement of people having left for the towns. Agriculture was also changing by leaps and bounds, and efficiency was the order of the day - the last pieces of arable land were enclosed around then, experiments with the use of steam engines to do farm jobs such as ploughing were under way and we had some of the country's top breeders who changed the whole shape and size of cattle. Machines such as harvest reapers and threshers were also being constructed and it all meant, in the long run, fewer workers were needed. My impression is that construction of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway went along at the same time as that of the major viaducts and bridges which it required. The Newcastle and Berwick Railway was finally opened for public use on 1 July 1847, completing the link from London to Edinburgh (NB just as making the A1 a decent road all the way between those places for the 21st century, is delayed by a lack of interest in the Northumberland stretch by London-based politicians, so it seems it was with the 19th century railway!). At first that link meant going around from Newcastle to Carlisle then down the west coast route, but on 29 August 1848 a temporary line was opened across the High Level Bridge, then under construction, and a link of sorts was established via Gateshead and Sunderland. The engineering works on the High Level were completed on 7 June 1849 but it was not until 28 September of that year (1849) that Queen Victoria officially opened the Bridge on her way south from Scotland, remaining on it for 15 minutes. The next year (August 1850) the Queen was again at Newcastle, on the way for her annual Scottish holiday, and on that occasion she "inaugurated" the Central Station, this time remaining for a whole 20 minutes. She didn't like Newcastle and on later journeys would always, it is said, ensure that the blinds on the Royal Train were drawn when it was due to pass through the City. One thing I don't really understand - perhaps someone will enlighten me - is that, according to my information, the Queen opened the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick on that same trip in 1850 - but surely she must have crossed it in September 1849! Incidentally, the main banner erected over the Royal Border Bridge for that occasion read "The Final Act of Union". I didn't hear that mentioned last week! Geoff Nicholson -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Wood via <northumbria@rootsweb.com> To: NORTHUMBRIA <NORTHUMBRIA@rootsweb.com> Sent: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 15:28 Subject: [NMB] 19th Century Irish in Northumberland Hello list I¹m currently involved in social history research relating to my Irish forebears, whose family name was Cox. They originated from County Roscommon and were victims of the Ballykilcline clearance and evictions of 1847/8, which took place during The Famine. Most of these unfortunate people went to Canada & the USA, but my ancestors finished up in Northumberland. 1851 sees Henry Cox in Embleton, Northumberland, when he was designated labourer. Sometime after 1851 and before his marriage in 1856, my direct ancestor, Daniel Cox was in Alnwick, where he was an agricultural labour. A third Cox brother, Patrick Cox was married in Berwick in 1852 and may have been living in Berwick in 1851, Patrick was a tailor. By 1861 all three men were in Stockton on Tees, but had children in Northumberland until 1857; however, it is the Northumberland connection I am seeking guidance on and how they came to be in these separate and relatively remote locations I¹m aware that a major restoration of Alnwick castle began in 1854 and it took ten years to complete. Also, the railway from Newcastle to Berwick was being completed, with the Tweed Bridge at Berwick built between 1847-1850, which allowed for the completion of the subsequent rail link up the east coast from Newcastle to Edinburgh. I suppose that the above work was more lucrative and that many of the local agricultural workers in Northumberland were leaving the land to work on those projects, or in the coalmines at this time, thereby freeing up agricultural jobs. It would appear from the census returns that there were many Irish in rural Northumberland during the 1850s, but does anyone know why Northumberland was so popular, as opposed to other rural areas? Also, as I¹ve mentioned, the vast majority of the Ballykicline victims crossed the Atlantic, so I¹d like to discover why my ancestors chose the northeast of England. Does anyone else know of any others evicted from Roscommon finishing up in Northumberland? Regards Andrew Wood .. Please quote the minimum necessary to put your reply on context. Please introduce yourself at the top of every post. The NORTHUMBRIA FAQ page is located at http://www.bpears.org.uk/NorthumbriaFAQ/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORTHUMBRIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message