Peter Park has been actively involved in his own and other people’s family history research for forty years. He is a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists and Vice President of Cumbria FHS. He was awarded an MA by the University of Central Lancashire for his research into the Poor Law Commission’s home migration scheme of the 1830s. An international speaker on family history and associated topics, his books include My ancestors were manorial tenants, Cumbrians in Liverpool in 1851 and the Lancashire and Cumberland & Westmorland volumes of the National Index of Parish Registers. A number of his articles have appeared in The Genealogists Magazine, Ancestors, Your Family Tree, Local Population Studies and The Bulletin of Local and Family History.
Presentation
Bright lights, big city: a case study in rural-to-urban migration
This talk examines a number of aspects of migration in the first half of the nineteenth century. Many Cumbrians moved into Liverpool from rural areas. Their experiences of a new life in a large city, as were their reactions to it, were typical of rural-to-urban migrants throughout England.