Review: Tracing your trade and craftsman ancestors : a guide for family historians by Adele Emm

Tracing your trade and craftsman ancestors : a guide for family historians. By Adele Emm, Pen and Sword, 2015, 214 p.           

          While some genealogists secretly harbour hope that they are descended from nobility, most of us have found that our family line contains a predominance of working class folk. Adele Emm’s guidebook focuses on the records left behind by ancestors engaged “in trade.” Knowing and understanding the work your ancestors did is imperative to understanding the structure and rhythm of their lives.

            Emm describes the records that provide clues to our ancestors’ occupations: censuses records, vital records, parish records, wills and immigration records. These records are good starting points, but there are other documents, as Emm explains, that provide information about our ancestors’ working lives. She discusses the availability and location of guild and apprenticeship records, and how they might add missing information to your ancestor’s narrative.

            The author also provides valuable information about the use of occupational surnames in England, and how street names can even point to your ancestor’s choice of employment. Obsolete occupations, such as “higgler” or “dudder,” can be a puzzlement to today’s genealogists. Emm points readers to free online resources that explain these unfamiliar occupations.

Most interesting are the chapters devoted entirely to specific types of trade and their allied occupations including, merchants, shopkeepers, builders, smiths, shoemakers, and clothiers. Emm also includes a miscellaneous chapter that covers coopers, printmakers, wheelwrights and saddle-makers. The author discusses the definitions of each occupation and the related jobs associated with it, the requirements in terms of apprenticeship and training, and the working conditions of the job throughout the years.

This guide will be of benefit to anyone researching their trade ancestors in England. Those who are researching in other countries may find interesting information here that also applies to their ancestor’s work life in other places, but the primary focus is on apprenticeship requirements and guilds, as well as working conditions, in England.