In the recent Researching Occupations podcast episode with Sophie Kay we talked about many different occupations, effects upon a person’s health, death, the place they lived and more.
Finding and identifying old occupations
For late 19th or early 20th century, “A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations Used in the Census of Population, 1921”. It contains a multitude of occupational terms as they appeared in the 1921 Census and can help you to distinguish between distinct jobs which have the same name, or identify multiple different words for the same job: http://doot.spub.co.uk
The HISCO (HIStorical International Classification of Occupations) Database is an ever-growing resource which allows you to look up historical occupations, find out what they were called in other countries, and find definitions, descriptions and images relating to the jobs of earlier eras: https://historyofwork.iisg.nl/search.php
Sophie’s blog has a 3 article series “Bringing Home the Bacon” which covers historical occupations
- General tips and tricks – https://parchmentrustler.com/family-history/bacon-part-1
- Urban occupations – https://parchmentrustler.com/family-history/bacon-part-2
- Rural occupations – https://parchmentrustler.com/family-history/bacon-part-3
Other sources for researching occupations
- Internet Archive https://archive.org/search?query=historical%20occupations
- Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/England_Occupations
- https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/glossary/Dictionary-of-Old-Occupations-Index.html
- Scotland and beyond https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/visit-us/scotlandspeople-centre/useful-websites-for-family-history-research/occupations
- https://dustyoldthing.com/english-names-old-occupations
- http://www.capitalareagenealogy.org/page_96f.htm
Engineering and manufacturing ancestors
Grace’s Guide https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page
Trade Directories
Special Collections Online at the University of Leicester provides free access to nearly 700 local and trade directories for England and Wales from the late 18th century onwards. The search facility isn’t always the most intuitive to use, but there is a wealth of information to be found: https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4
Trade directories such as Kelly’s can be accessed on Ancestry using their card catalogue.
- UK only https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/catalog/?limitToCountry=1
- Global https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?limitToCountry=1
Listen to the podcast episode here www.Journeysintogenealogy.co.uk
Recommended reading
Family History Nuts and Bolts; Problem-Solving through Family Reconstitution Techniques, 3rd edition by Andrew Todd. Available on Amazon https://amzn.to/3kP2EvL
Occupations & Health
John Thomas Arlidge’s book The Hygiene, Diseases and Mortality of Occupations is available for free on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/hygienediseases01arligoog/page/n4/mode/2up
If you’d like to find out more about how lung disease affected Edinburgh stonemasons, then take a look at Donaldson et al. (2017) – Death in the New Town: Edinburgh’s hidden story of stonemason’s silicosis: https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/college/journal/death-new-town-edinburghs-hidden-story-stonemasons-silicosis
The censuses at Histpop
Official reports from the national census, which go into some detail about how occupations were classified, and offer insights into how the occupational landscape of the nation changed over the course of the 19th century. http://www4.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Show?page=Home
More about Sophie Kay
- Sophie’s website https://khronicle.co.uk
- Sophie’s blog https://parchmentrustler.com
Pharos Mapping Strategies for Family Historians course
Sophie will be running a course on Mapping Strategies for Family Historians in September 2023. The course starts on 11 September, runs for four weeks and is open to anyone. Find out more and book your place here: https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=343
Podcast
Listen to the podcast episode here www.Journeysintogenealogy.co.uk
