Knowing what your ancestors did in their lives provides valuable colour and insight for your family history. Establishing where they worked, and with whom, might provide clues to follow up, to establish their connections and associations and in some cases even suggest why they moved.
The 1921 census of England and Wales, which was published on Findmypast in January (findmypast.co.uk/ 1921-census), provides more of an opportunity to learn about a person’s employment than any previous census. For the first time our relations were asked not only the general nature of their trade, profession or occupation, but also who they worked for and their place of work. The website’s ‘Advanced search’ pages also allow you to see who else worked there.
In large industries such as coal mining and railways, knowing the individual company
