Work

When you are tracing your ancestors there are many sources that will give you their occupation including certificates, church registers, the census and trade directories. It may be possible to trace records related to their work in order to obtain more information about them or simply to give you general background about their working life.

The National Register of Archives maintains an online database of around 150, 000 companies. It includes historical information about the organisations and indicates where records have been deposited. Although most organisations keep records relating to individual employees it is not usual for them to survive.

The Business Archives Council holds a large collection of publications on companies and has produced a book called Company Archives The Survey of the Records of 1000 of the First Registered Companies in England and Wales, which includes information about where their records are located.

If you find an unfamiliar job description, there are two helpful printed sources that may be available in places holding census records.
The first is a guide compiled by the Federation of Family History Societies called Occupations, A Preliminary List, and the second is a Dictionary of Occupational Terms based on the 1921 census.

The Federation of Family History Societies has also published guides to finding sources based on specific occupations or localities.

Click one of the buttons on the navigation bar to find out more about the records kept at Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies.