Almost all of us have a tradesman or craftsman
a butcher, baker or candlestick maker
somewhere in our ancestry, and Adele 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.
Adele Emm’s introduction will be fascinating reading for anyone who is researching the social or family history of trades and crafts. SELLING POINTS: . Accessible introduction for the family historian to the history of trades and crafts. . Identifies books, archives, museums and other records that researchers can use. 40 illustrations