Description: 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.Brief description: Adèle Emm worked for many years in television and is the author of Researching for the Media, Television, Radio and Journalism and Tracing Your Trade and Craftsman Ancestors, My Ancestors Worked in Textile Mills and numerous family history magazine articles. She has been tracing her family tree since she was 17-years-old and has been a member of the Society of Genealogists and Guild of One Name Studies for many years. Her website is at www.adeleemm.com
Review Quotes: "This is 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"