Do white British people know why they are in the UK?

[boltj]

Do they wonder why their ancestors didn’t move away to USA, Canada, Australia, NZ etc in colonial times or recently?

I can’t say I do wonder. The majority of my English/Welsh ancestors stayed put.

What are you OP? If you don’t mind me asking that is.

My research into my family background tells me I am almost 100% Welsh. I believe l am in the UK because my ancestors were dirt poor and the males spent most of their lives down mines-coal, gold or tin. Females were employed in service. Many died young of consumption. Living the dream.

From my experience of Americans, I would guess more optimistic/extraverted people were more inclined to immigrate.

People love their country and families is the most obvious answer.

My parents did DNA testing and got a wide palette of countries between them, but I have no idea how accurate it is, or how my ancestors originally ended up on this island. If we all go back far enough, we’ll all get to a similar starting point.

I’ve only looked at my family tree as far back as the early 19th century. They were all in the UK, no one was up to much, quite a few tailors and seamstresses over the years who were unrelated and didn’t know each other.

They did move around the UK a bit on my dad’s side, between England, Wales and Scotland. A number of my mum’s family emigrated to Australia and Canada, but her parents stayed put. I left home at 17 and moved to a different city, but stayed in the UK.

No. Most of them were too poor to consider emigration.

So interesting to read about different people’s family histories. I have French Hurgenots fleeing persecution who went to the Cape and intermarried with the Dutch on one side, a long line of ancestors from Guernsey , with sailors who sailed around the world. One of them moved to the North east to work on the mines. I have Welsh miners going back generations in another line. Another relative who moved from the North East for work in Africa . Most of my family were poor and desperate to survive anyway they could. I looked at one ancestor who had a huge number of children, most of whom died, presumably from disease and poverty. Their lives were hard and often pretty joyless. Just because they were white didn’t mean they had choices.

In general people preferred to live near their famiiies and home was the area where they had lived for generations and had roots. Moving abroad was for these who were desperate for whatever reason . It meant loneliness and hardship .

I'm researching my family tree at the moment and I'm back to GGGGP in 1700s. 90% of my ancestors are from London, with a few hailing from Norfolk. Their work was here and their large families were here and I guess they never had the urge, or the money, to emigrate.

I suspect OP was being goady but it's produced an interesting thread.

No If I think about my ancestors I wonder where they came from.

I should say that several of my OH’s great Uncles moved to Canada in the depression because there was so little work in the UK. One of my great uncles did the same.

I don’t think that was an option for the vast majority of people here before a couple of generations ago.

Its not an option for me now either.

I could wonder why my ancestors were all poor and why I don’t have disposable income to move, I guess?

Because white Brits are the best of the best and loved their beautiful country so stayed out. Because why wouldn't they?

Will you ask the same question about countries?

My dad's parents had tickets to travel to Australia as ten pound poms. His younger brother didnt want to go and ran off the day before they were due to travel. He turned up 2 days later having hidden out in some woods with a picnic... Boat was obviously missed and they stayed put in Wales. My dad's mum was furious for months bless her.

Do you know it wasn't cheap to book tickets, even in steerage, to go to the other side of the world. Still isn't now,

You should find out what white privilege means. It’s not about being rich necessarily.

Mine moved over to USA and Aus but we’re Irish.

Spiders. It's because of spiders.

I'm pretty sure I come from a long line of people who didn't like spiders and the spiders here are less bad so we stayed 👍

What a stupid question.

Why does anyone live anywhere? It's where they were born and they either don't have either the desire or the means to change that.

Depends which ancestor you look at.

i have one great-great-great ancestor who emigrated from Scotland to Australia - I believe an economic migrant though not sure of that. My grandfather emigrated back again. I guess he was a climate migrant of sorts, he didn’t like the heat 🙂 and settled back in a naice bit of Glasgow.

I’ve got lots of other ancestors, funnily enough. Many of them stayed in the UK because they had a jolly nice life here and were busily founding businesses, being MPs, raising funds for women’s education, writing long-forgotten books (I have some of them. Enough to put anyone off publishing their great thoughts), looking after elderly relatives, having children, spending money combatting damp in a series of mind-bendingly expensive money pit houses, and writing diaries and letters, which are usually slightly more entertaining than the books.

Nor me and I cant actually find a fck to give about it either.

You don’t say.

I had a great grandmother who left Ireland for India for a better life. She and her family came to Britain in 1947.

I suppose the rest have always been just comfortable enough to have never felt the need.

From what I know of my 19th century ancestors, one line of the family had (and still has) a small farm. Another couple of lines were also small holders in other parts of the UK. One line was small business owners. No one was being pushed out to the "New World". There was a little European migration in.

Most people stayed local unless times were particularly difficult and pushing them elsewhere.

Even moving region prior to the internet was a ballache of contacting estate agents and sourcing information about houses in the days when they were listed in local newspapers. Rightmove making details avaliable with few clicks was a major game changer in helping people to be more mobile.

Because more people tend to stay put than emigrate? From anywhere in the world.

Because it was their home and they were satisfied I guess.

OP do you ever wonder why white people from Bulgaria or Portugal or Russia etc never left? Odd question really!