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England:- Occupations

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  • A very useful Dictionary of Occupational Terms was available on CD from the Open University. Some copies may still be available through the Family and Community Historical Research SocietyFACHRS) or you may find a it among your local FH Society's resources. This CD reproduces the 1927 Ministry of Labour guide to occupational terms used in the 1921 census. Although this is a 20th century publication, many of the terms are unchanged from their 19th century usage.
    Peter Christian has recently (Q4 2016) made this available as an online database

  • Rodney Hall also has a page listing old occupational terms.

  • The web site of the English Family Tree Association also had a list of old occupational terms. That web site has disappeared but here is a snapshot from the Internet Archive.

  • The National Archives (TNA) web site includes a collection of Research Guides many of which relate to occupations. It is also worth submitting an occupation as a search term to TNA's Discovery.

  • Public Houses, Inns and Taverns: This site gives historic information on many Pubs, Inns, Taverns & Beer Houses across the country.

  • Two useful books about agricultural practice and implements are The Land of England by Dorothy Hartley and Woodland Crafts in Britain by Herbert L.Edlin (ISBN 0715358529).

  • A more general book on the subject is A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations by Colin Titford and John Waters

  • George's: Canal Boating in the U.K. and Europe website provides maps of navigable canals in England and Wales. The CANAL-PEOPLE and the ENG-CANAL-PEOPLE Mailing Lists are valuable resource for those with ancestors who were canal workers or barge owners.

Blacksmiths

The Blacksmiths Index - Compiled by Ann Spiro

Clergy

The Clergy of the Church of England Database (CCEd) - http://theclergydatabase.org.uk/ - is a collaborative project to create a relational database documenting the careers of all Church of England clergymen between 1540 and 1835.

Pianoforte Makers

This is for you if you have pianoforte makers in your ancestry

Sportsmen/women

The ESPN CricInfo site has a database of Cricketers who played for the England team.

Tailors

This work (by Galton, published 1896) is primarily about trade unionism but specifically concerns the tailoring trade and journeyman tailors from about 1720 onwards: http://www.archive.org/stream/selectdocumentsi00galtiala