One early type of movement from highlands to lowlands

[Andrew Lancaster4]

Hi everyone Those of you who are connected to the DNA project

[D.W.Livingston]

Looking at my Family Historical records it appears my whole family up to my Grand father were coal miners. dating back to the 1841 census. I would assume this does seem to be a job passed down from Father to Son. Would it be safe to say that peope would move with the work? When one coal mine got depleted after a few generations the family would move again? Most of the Family information I have is from Cranston, but earlier it is in Perth and I wouldn't think a non-coalminer would move to Cranston to start u0p as a Coal Miner. On a side note a lot of coal miners lost their eye sight as well and became "Paupers". How many other members have generations of coal miners in their line? =) Thank You, David

[Kyle2 MacLea]

I think I have one in my tree--but much later, closer to 1900.

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Andrew, Highland Livingstones and MacLea crofters had a geniune need to find work to sustain themselves and their families wherever that might be. For some like my Movern Livingstones it was fortunate that they had the enlightened, 5th Duke of Argyll as their landlord in the 18th and early 19th century. He developed various schemes to assist his struggling tenants. My Movern Livingstones were carpenters, boatbuilders and barrelmakers and were thus able to find employment on the Isle of Islay at or near the Port of Bowmore. As Niall pointed out to me the Isle of Islay has a centuries old whiskey industry, so boatbuilder Miles Livingstone's skill as barrelmaker much later in life, was probably first learned their as a young man. For others such as Doctor Livingston's grandfather Neil Livingstone the solution was to find work in the lowlands at or near one of the larger centres such as Glasgow where there was greater demand for labor than in the highlands. SInce coming to the forum I have been made aware that there are probably a large number of Livingstones and Macleas who left their homeland at or near the Highland rhelm to find work at or shortly after the industrialized revolution took hold in lowland Scotland. (On the other hand not all the related families of the ancient Callendar Livingstones did not all flee to Rome

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Andrew, Working in a coal mine in the 19th century was no doubt a slave like existence. I suspect things have improved somewhat for coalworkers, but the effect on the lungs with longterm exposure to coal dust is probably little changed. While Doctor Livingstone's family did not work in coal mine like conditions, certainly Doctor Livingstone working as a child for long hours in a woolen mill was something that we in the modern western world would not tolerate today. regards Donald