occupation changes

[Carrie Meerten]

Did people tend to keep the same occupation throught the years or was this a rare occasion.

When searching the census' then, if someone has changed occupations, like in 1861 he was a cordwainer (shoe maker), would he likely then to change to being an agriculturer labourer.

[Rod Neep]

Anything is possible.

Ask yourself "how many occupations have my living relatives had?"
Did they all stay in the same occupation?

Regards
Rod

[Carrie Meerten]

yes, I had thought of that. but times have changed and still are a changn' !!
I thought that maybe, back then, once you were in a line of business, that that was it, you basically did the same thing, too hard (not many jobs available) to change.

[Carrie Meerten]

with my living rellies, my hubby is still in the same professtion, master fisherman. at the moment i am home duties, but always had been office before now, my mum has always and still is in office work, my dad has had 3 occ changes in his life but for the last 15 years has been in one - but they have still all remained around the same thing.

[Guy Etchells]

Did people tend to keep the same occupation throught the years or was this a rare occasion.

When searching the census' then, if someone has changed occupations, like in 1861 he was a cordwainer (shoe maker), would he likely then to change to being an agriculturer labourer. It depends:
Consider the times, 1860s agricultural jobs are in decline, many labourers are leaving the country for the towns and cities as factory work becomes available and less workers are required on the land.
Your cordwainer if he lived in a village could now find himself with little or no customers for his leather-work and has to turn to whatever employment is available – agricultural labouring.
If your cordwainer lived in a town or city there would be less chance of such a change and it would be more likely that your cordwainer would go on the tramp to find another leather-working position; the tramp is where a worker goes from town to town visiting the masters of their trade at the various locations, often supported by them with food shelter and hints as to who requires workers and letters of introduction.
This is a prime example of why family historians need to keep an eye on the bigger picture whilst discovering the minute detail, local history and family history are totally intertwined.
Cheers
Guy

[Geoffers]

Did people tend to keep the same occupation throught the years or was this a rare occasion.
Many did keep the same occupation or type of occupation, in both rural and urban areas. In urban areas either as shopkeepers, skilled craftsmen, or labourers in mills and factories; in rural areas as millers, smiths, working with horses, bricklayers, ag.labs, etc.



When searching the census' then, if someone has changed occupations, like in 1861 he was a cordwainer (shoe maker), would he likely then to change to being an agriculturer labourer.
As others have pointed out, this too is possible. For me, the question with such a change is, what circumstances are different for them to need to change occupation?

This can be difficult to establish, but sometimes looking at context - e.g. Don't just look at the entry for your family, look at the entries for the area where they lived, how crowded is it, what jobs do the locals have? Is this a prosperous area. For rural areas, look at the total population over several censuses - is there a net increase or decrease? Have your family changed from being ag.labs to bricklayers/brickayer's labourers because of an increase in population. Has the mechanisation of the weaving industry ended their good living from hand-loom weaving to working in a factory.

As Guy wrote:

This is a prime example of why family historians need to keep an eye on the bigger picture
Geoffers

[Peggy]

Recently came across an interesting article about classification of occupations on the census.

http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~matthew/work/occlass.htm

Sounds as if what was on the schedules was getting revised at a number of levels.

Peggy

[ChristineR]

My Robert RANDALL was a shoemaker when he had a children baptized in 1818 & 1820, but by the 1841 census had become a labourer, which later included sweeping streets. So it is whatever they can make money at. At one stage, he lived in a household that had a shoemaker (exact relationship not worked out yet, probably an in-law) It was probably the case of there being too many shoemakers in town.

Christine