Articles by Shannon Bennett

The Professions

The Professions

By Shannon Bennett, Student Modules 4-8 of English: Occupations–Professions and Trades covers a wide variety of different occupations, laws and rules associated with them, plus lots of little bits of information that I think I digested. Once again, I stuffed information in my head and hoped that the sponge took it all in. In the future I see using this course as a great reference book when I track down English ancestors! Instead of doing an overview of the modules, I thought I would pick out a couple of occupations that I found interesting. I hope you do too because the instructor did an excellent job of presenting the information on each of them. Needless to say, it was hard to whittle it down to just a few to talk about. Domestic Service We know that from early days most women had responsibilities to the family and home. Yes, many did work side-by-side with their husbands or family members be it in stores or in the fields, but women’s work was defined by society.They were responsible for feeding and clothing the family in addition to any paid work they did outside of the home. Then with the Compulsory Education Acts of 1870 and 1880 women were better situated for different and better paying jobs, not just those of laundress, spinner, or cook. Dr. Penelope Christensen tells us that in the 1851 census, “servant” was the second most common occupation, after agricultural laborer, in England. I was enthralled reading about the…

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An Apprentice in the Family

By Shannon Bennett, Student In English: Occupations – Professions and Trades, Module 2  we jumped right in and learned quite a bit about the apprentice system in England. Wow, that was a lot of interesting, new, and eye opening information for me. I think I will continue to process it for a while. I knew from history books that the apprentice system was complicated and long running but I really didn’t understand all the nuances that were involved.  Learning all the laws helped me understand what the changes were then and how they could affect what I found from a genealogical perspective. In fact, I did not know that there were three kinds of apprenticeship: trade, poor, and charity. Each of those categories had different rules and regulations as well. Plus, depending on which your ancestor fell under could determine what information would be available to you and where you could find it. That’s right, nothing can be easy can it?! What really struck me was the amount of potential genealogical information that is out there. If you knew that your ancestor worked an occupation that would require apprenticeship you could be in luck with the family knowledge you could uncover. It makes me want to go look a little harder for those papers that could be out there about my family! For instance, if you had an ancestor who was a trade apprentice you could potentially learn the following information about them from register books: Name and age of…

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Learning More About English Occupations

By Shannon Bennett, Student Many of my and my husband’s family come from England. Lots. Lots and lots. Did I say quite a few?  Well, needless to say I am intrigued by the records that are over there but at times I do not understand exactly what is being said. We sort of speak the same language. I am sure some of you can relate. Even here in the US our words have evolved over time. For example I had an ancestor who was a paperhanger. What in the world did that mean?  After I researched it I learned he hung wallpaper (in addition to painting houses and odd stints as a carpenter). It occurred to me that as I delved deeper into various records across the pond that I might come into more and more occupations that I didn’t quite understand, let alone understand the way the labor system was set up there. Thankfully there is a course I can take through The National Institute to help me learn all about this side of genealogy. My next course is English: Occupations. Professions and Trades by Dr. Penelope Christensen.  I have to say it looks intriguing!  Looking over the syllabus it really looks like it is going to cover a wide range of information across a variety of fields. Most of our family ancestors were farmers or miners with a couple who were merchants or had a trade. While none of them were professionals, I think it will be interesting…

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Finishing Up: The US Census Course

By Shannon Bennett, Student What a wonderful course!  Really, once again I am surprised by exactly how much I didn’t know about a simple, basic topic. The U.S. Federal Census is a staple for researchers in the states, but it is also complicated and at times detailed. Unless the family history researcher takes the time to dig deeper it will never give up all of its secrets to them. I would almost say it could be a trial in patience and perseverance. Some people might not understand why this course could be of use to anyone who is already an intermediate or more advanced genealogist. Simply put, I would say anyone with that outlook is wrong.  (Well, unless they are a true expert in the U.S. Census.) So, unless you have written a book on the subject, or this is your niche, I bet you can take away quite a bit from the course. I thought I knew quite a lot about this basic subject but I was very appreciative of how in-depth the course is. There were obvious holes in my knowledge, and I enjoyed learning about aspects of the census that I didn’t know as much about. I really liked that there were a large number of charts and tips to aid the student in their classwork. Which, I will admit, I have already tabbed so that I can use them again for future reference. Speaking of classwork, I was excited to have a few case studies to…

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Maps and the US Census

By Shannon Bennett, Student I love maps. Really, maps are a fantastic research tool, and even more important when you are using census records. Think about it, why do you think that would be the case?  I can think of several reasons; hopefully mine and yours match. Boundaries in the U.S. shifted, changed, and morphed over the years into what we know today. During western expansion, borders could be re-written almost overnight. Think about how many times over the course of the 10 years between enumerations this may have happened. In fact, your family may never have  actually picked up and moved but that doesn’t mean that they are listed as living in thave actually when the next census came along. Frustrating isn’t it? That’s why I was excited to see a section about maps included in the US Census Records  course . You should have access to the maps for the all of the places you are researching. It can really help you put the information you learn into perspective. Particularly, like I already said, if you know your family never moved but the census states differently. Locating those shifting boundaries is like turning on a light bulb on in a dark room sometimes. Maps can also help you determine how the territorial and state boundaries shifted over various years.  Even better, sometimes territories had their own censuses. This makes knowing when states formed from them even more critical. These territorial census records are interesting but they don’t always contain…

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