Tracing Your Trade & Craftsman Ancestors

A Guide for Family Historians

Adéle Emm

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Family History
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473856240
• Print ISBN:
  9781473823624
• Subtopic: British History

Almost all of us have a tradesman or craftsman a butcher, baker or candlestick maker somewhere in our ancestry, and Adle 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. Adle Emm's introduction will be fascinating reading for anyone who is researching the social or family history of trades and crafts.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction to Trade and Crafts
• Chapter 2 Guilds
• Chapter 3 Training and Working Conditions
• Chapter 4 Merchants and Mercers
• Chapter 5 Shopkeepers
• Chapter 6 Builders and the Building Trade
• Chapter 7 Smiths and Metal Workers
• Chapter 8 Cordwainers and Shoemakers
• Chapter 9 Clothing and Allied Trades
• Chapter 10 Other Trades
• Chapter 11 Other Genealogical Resources
• Select Bibliography and Further Reading