England Occupation Records - International Institute

The Sources
Family lore, as well as the reminiscences of friends and neighbours, can be tapped for occupational information orally and from documents. Pry out the answers to these types of questions for each job held:


 * What did he do and exactly where did he work?
 * Was he self-employed or did he work for a firm?
 * What department did he work in and what was his precise role?
 * What were his wages and benefits?
 * How did he get his job?
 * Did he have relatives in the same trade and firm? It is always worth considering the occupations carried on by father, uncles and sons when trying to determine what he did.
 * Who was his boss?
 * Did he have apprentices or assistants, how many and who were they?
 * Did he celebrate 25 years in service with a special commemoration?
 * Have you figured out when he celebrated his 25th or 50th wedding anniversary and looked for a newspaper write-up? It will no doubt mention his occupation.
 * Why and when did he quit?
 * Was there a retirement event? When, where?
 * Are there any artefacts, for example samples of manufactured articles or tools, inherited by the family that indicate or illustrate his occupation?
 * Are there photographs of him at work wearing a tradesman’s garment or uniform? Get them identified.
 * Are there descriptions or illustrations of his place of business and can they be identified?
 * Have you searched for documents such as apprenticeship indentures, membership in trade or professional associations, prizes, inscriptions on the proverbial gold watch or retirement memento, or copies of trade magazines—perhaps with notes on long service, retirement announcements or obituaries?

The basic research sources need to be combed exhaustively. Use civil registration and the census thoroughly by getting all the certificates and census returns, because different occupational terminology may be used which widens your scope for finding records, and occupations did change over time. Don’t just use indexes to parish registers as these rarely give the occupations, but the originals often do. Check all his children’s entries— the occupation may only be given on one of them, and Murphy’s Law says it won’t be the child who is your ancestor! The occupation stated when he wrote his will is not necessarily the same as earlier in life, or at death; and if no occupation is given does he bequeath implements, tools or other materials from which you can infer an occupation?

Look in parish chest records such as vestry minutes, and militia returns, or land tax returns and local histories. Epitaphs and tombstone insignia, obituaries and other newspaper articles, as well as local histories are particularly recommended. The range of other sources is only limited by the researcher’s imagination.

Trade and Street Directories
Many more people had their own business than nowadays and in the 19th century, at least, they will be in town and county directories. The earliest London directory is 1677, with annual volumes starting in 1734. Provincial towns generally had regular directories from the mid-18th century (Chapman 1998). They may show the residents of each street, index the gentry and tradesmen, and have much useful information on local trades and institutions in the introductory material as well as advertisements for local trades and businesses. Shaw (quoted by Camp 1999 in Businesses and their Records. Family Tree Magazine. Vol 15 #3, page 21-22) did a comparison of 1871 census and directory entries and found that 98% of Exeter’s main street households, and 75% of the smaller street ones, appeared in the directory. Excerpts from different kinds of directories follow:

CHART: Three Types of Directory

Alphabetical Directory for Liverpool 

Consultation of a long run of directories is preferable as it is when possible to ascertain when a business started, its address and any name changes over the years, and its disappearance. When the name of the proprietor is first given then one can follow up with records of his training or freedom of the city, and on disappearance of the name look for bankruptcy or sale of the business, and/or a will. Publishers include Bailey, Holden, Kelly, Pigot, Post Office, White and many others. The Universal British Directory produced 1790-1798 covered most large towns in Britain and is not the easiest to use, but contains much information not obtainable elsewhere and is the earliest national one. Even more useful for the detail they offer on individual businesses are the dozens of late 19th century Progress, Commerce and kindred publications noted in two articles by John Titford in Odd Vols: Unusual Printed Sources for Family Historians: Progress, Commerce and Kindred Publications: “Nineteenth Century Commercial Directories with Knobs on”. Family Tree Magazine Vol 18. Part I in #3, page 9-11; Part II in #6, page 24-26. (2002).

Directories are available at county archives, university libraries, the FHLC and many are now available on CD. The local public library reference section or local history section usually has a good run of local directories and can be contacted by post or Email. In London the Society of Genealogists (Newington-Irving), Guildhall Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum have all got large collections.

Telephone Directories
The first list of London telephone subscribers was published in 1880. Guildhall Library as well as the National Telephone Library contain fairly complete runs.

Dictionaries of Biography
There are many compendia of biographies such as the well-known DNB’s (Dictionary of National Biography edited by Helen Palmer) for many countries in local public libraries. Others dedicated to every profession and most trades are available through the same source.

Perhaps the easiest way to access them is through Herbert and McNeil’s annual Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI), which is now also on CD-ROM with over 11 million entries on 4 million people from approximately 900 current or retrospective biographical sources.Biography Database 1680-1830 gives names and details extracted from directories, subscription lists and Gentleman’s Magazine (Tyrwhitt-Drake).

The British Biographical Archive is a huge fiched series of facsimile biographies with index available in larger libraries. Series I contains approximately 300,000 articles about 170,000 persons taken from 324 biographical works from 1601-1929. Series II is mainly 20th century material on 150,000 persons

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online courses English: Occupation Records-Professions and Trades and English: Occupations-Military and Services offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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