bootmakers and thatchers?

[Lynda Martin]

hi everyone, I just found this board and am looking forward to exploring it further to help me learn about how my family lived in Victorian London and Somerset.
My Londoner was a bootmaker from 1850s to 1890s and with his family lived first in Notting Hill then in the 1880s moved to Willesden. I would like to find out what life was like in those areas and the conditions he would have worked in. Could someone in that occupation earn a decent living?
What about thatchers in rural Somerset? would it have been a hand to mouth existance?
Lynda

[Geoffers]

It is difficult to be specific. The quality of life would have varied greatly from one person to another, depending on whether they were master craftsmen or journeymen; the state of the economy, etc. This picture can be built up by using directories, census returns, wills and many other sources. Archive CD Books sell directories and census returns to assist researchers

Some other sources which may be of interest or use are:
http://www.francisfrith.com/pageloader.asp
The home of a massive collection of photographs, the sell (or at least used to), a CD containing about 3,500 photos which is a useful resource.

continued......

[Geoffers]

part 2.......

'Made in England' by Dorothy Hartley. First published 1939 it was reprinted in 1987 by Century Hutchinson ISBN 0 7126 1705 7. This is a very interesing description of many different types of rural crafts, including thatching.

There are lots of second hand book sellers on the internet. Try using a search engine to find some of them, look for them using a search such as 'local History Books Somerset'

Local newspapers can be a good source and again you might find some on the web. The places in which you are interested may have web-sites which include a local history.

There's a fair bit of information on the GENUKI web-sites, you may find someone there to build up the picture.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/

Hope that gives a few ideas of where to start looking
Geoffers

[Peter Goodey]

Geoffers has pretty well covered it. I'd just add that for London, you may find something interesting here:

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/workov.html

I find computerized library catalogues an amazingly useful resource if they have a flexible search engine.
To judge by thatchers in my family, although thatching may have been the main skill, it wasn't full time and they had to supplement their income by various labouring jobs during slack periods.

[Colin Moretti]

My Londoner was a bootmaker from 1850s to 1890s and with his family lived first in Notting Hill then in the 1880s moved to Willesden. I would like to find out what life was like in those areas and the conditions he would have worked in. Could someone in that occupation earn a decent living? Lynda
Hello Lynda

There are some examples of the wages of bootmakers at http://www.victorianlondon.org/, you'll need to use the site search for boot or bootmaker ; it's a fascinating site if you have London ancestors.

You might find this site of interest for comparing cost of living: http://eh.net/hmit/

Good luck

Colin