Dictionary of old trades & occupations

by Andrew Twining

"During my years of family history research, I have noted many different, interesting and unusual occupations on birth, death and marriage certificates; and in directories; census returns; parish registers; wills etc, and often would have liked ready access to a book which gave brief descriptions of old occupations ... Concentrating on pre-1900 our first edition of this book contained just over 1000 descriptions. this second edition contains an additional 500 which hopefully will prove invaluable and enable family historians to ascertain further information. Numerous surnames originated from occupations, eg. Baker, Baxter, Parker, Smith and Walker ... new trades and occupations arise as technology progresses ... Obviously not every imagineable old trade and occupation is contained in this book ... It is to be noted that a term for a trade of occupation in one area, county or country may have another meaning elsewhere; and some terms have been included exactly as they were found in the