If you have found your relatives, these detailed records will have told you their addresses, their birthplaces – and their jobs. These findings will open the doors to your search among the more specialist lists at Ancestry.co.uk
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At this junction you’ll need to take a look at either the occupation or military records.
Occupation records
you’ll find comprehensive lists of postmen, policemen, doctors and many of the most popular professions throughout British history. You can use these records to track your family’s working lives from the start of the 18th century right up to the modern era.
1.Map entire careers
You can discover the places your ancestors worked, the positions they filled and the wages they earned. You can then use these details to build up a picture of their wealth and social standing.
2.Family traditions
It was common in the past for sons to follow their fathers into a trade. If you find one family member in the records, try moving backwards and forwards through time to see if you can spot other generations continuing the family tradition.
3.Changes in family trades
During the Industrial Revolution many people were forced to leave their farms and fields, and retrain as miners, builders and factory workers.
4.New technology: trouble and triumph
If a member of your family was one of the first to work on the railways in the early 1800s, they could have laid the first tracks around the Britain, making it possible for coal to be carried into the cities, and imports to be transported from the ports. The records can show how the first workers struggled with the new technology – it’s not unusual to find a driver reprimanded for leaving the tracks, or a signalman fined for causing a collision.
Military records
When you’re searching for relatives across different eras, it’s very likely that you are going to uncover at least one ancestor who fought for their country. That relative may even have given their life for the cause. You can learn more about your family’s war heroes in the military records at Ancestry.co.uk
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Every family in Britain was affected by World War I and the records at Ancestry are particularly comprehensive – records list around 9 million British men.
1.The service records are collections of documents created throughout each man’s service. They can tell you where and when they were fighting, their ranks and regiments, details of any injuries or transfers, and much more besides. You can then use the information from service records to pinpoint your ancestors in other records.
2.Medal rolls reveal the awards they earned.
3.Casualty lists honour those who were lost.
4.Grave registers tell you where they were laid to rest.
But military history is far wider than a single conflict. The records at Ancestry.co.uk help you discover the men who fought against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, those who went to South Africa for the Boer War, and indeed more recent relatives who battled Hitler’s army in World War II.
The good news is you don’t need to know which campaigns your ancestors were involved in. You can simply type in their name, give your best guess of the kind of time they might have been at war, and see what you can discover.
Start your 14-day free trial at Ancestry.co.uk
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