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Tracing Your Trade and Craftsman Ancestors (Paperback)

A Guide for Family Historians

Family History P&S History > Social History

By Adele Emm
Imprint: Pen & Sword Family History
Series: Tracing Your Ancestors
Pages: 214
ISBN: 9781473823624
Published: 7th April 2015

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Almost all of us have a tradesman or craftsman – a butcher, baker or candlestick maker – somewhere in our ancestry, and Adèle Emm's handbook is the perfect guide to finding out about them – about their lives, their work and the world they lived in. She introduces the many trades and crafts, looks at their practices and long traditions, and identifies and explains the many sources you can go to in order to discover more about them and their families.

Chapters cover the guilds, the merchants, shopkeepers, builders, smiths and metalworkers, cordwainers and shoemakers, tailors and dressmakers, coopers, wheelwrights and carriage-makers, and a long list of other trades and crafts. The training and apprenticeships of individuals who worked in these trades and crafts are described, as are their skills and working conditions and the genealogical resources that preserve their history and give an insight into their lives. A chapter covers the general sources that researchers can turn to – the National Archives, the census, newspapers, wills, and websites – and gives advice on how to use them.

Adèle Emm's introduction will be fascinating reading for anyone who is researching the social or family history of trades and crafts.

As featured in

Who Do You Think You Are? - Issue 213, January 2024

As featured in

Family Tree

Featured in

Essex Family Historian - No 176, March 2022

As featured in

Family Tree

Author article: Tracing the coastal trades of our ancestors as featured by

Family Tree, February 2021

Referenced in 'Resources' part of author article on Carpenters

WDYTYA? Magazine, February 2021

Author article 'Turnip power as featured by

Family Tree, December 2019

Adele Emm contributes to 'Peterloo massacre' feature

Family Tree, August 2019

As featured by

Family Tree, June 2019

As referenced in Melody Amsel – Arieli article 'A tailor's life for me'

Family Tree, October 2018

Author article part of the 'Blame the master of the house' feature

Family Tree, August 2018

Author featured as expert in 'Your Q&As: advice'

Family Tree, May 2018

Author featured as expert part of 'Your Q&A' feature

Family Tree, January 2018

As featured in 'further reading' part of Sue Wilkes article on the printing press world and the involvement of our ancestors

Your Family History, December 2017

Author article on ancestors in industrial schools as featured in

Family Tree, December 2017

Author article on finding out about the lives of our ancestors who worked in the construction industry as featured in

Family Tree, September 2017

Featured as expert for Jonathan Scott's article part of the 'best websites' feature

Who Do You Think You Are, August 2017

An excellent guide to get you researching the trade of your ancestors, pointing you to published and online resources plus how to put them into a correct social context. For the trades included you are well on your way to learning about your ancestors. For those not included you will have ideas of where to look.

Paul Milner Genealogy

Author article as featured in on the invention of the sewing machine and how it changed our ancestors' lives

Family Tree, January 2017

As featured in 'further reading' as part of author article by Sue Wilkes on tracking your ancestors business history

Your Family History, January 2017

Author article as featured in

Family Tree, November 2016

As featured in.

Family Tree Magazine August 2016

As featured in.

Family Tree June 2016

As featured in.

Family Tree - April 2016

As featured in.

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine - December 2015

As featured in

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine - March 2016

This book is especially strong on books and other media that offer insight into the professions themselves, workers' pay and conditions and the traditions, customs and rituals associated with them. These are found in the text, with web addresses usually in bold and in a select bibliography in an appendix. There is also a chapter with brief paragraphs on other related genealogical resources and how they complement the more specialised ones.
This book would be useful for anyone who has got a little way into their family tree and, thanks to the Victorian census, has come across one or more family members with a trade.

The Friends of the National Archives

Much as we might fantasise about noble ancestry, behind most of us lie generations of ordinary folk, toiling day by day to raise their families. But exploring those 'ordinary' lives brings rich rewards. Here long-standing family historian Adele Emm helps us do just that, with this helpful guidebook to understanding and researching a vast array of trades and crafts.

Naturally she explores the world of medieval guilds and systems of apprenticeship, as well as other related topics such as holidays, pay and pensions.

The bulk of the book then delves into different categories of trade, under the broad headings of merchants, shoemakers, and the textile trades, among others.

Inevitably, the sheer range of trades in the past means that some can only be touched on briefly - milliners get a paragraph, for example - but this nonetheless makes for a valuable quick reference guide to trades in times past.

Your Family Tree

As featured in.

Family Tree Magazine

Deserves a prominent place on any family historian's bookshelf.

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
 Adele Emm
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