Sue Gibbons, was a past librarian at the Society of Genealogists. Speaking about our ‘Shopkeeper ancestors: ’. Sue said she had divided her talk into three parts.
1) The Shop and its surroundings. - Sue suggested we first find out if the shop still exists and how the outside looks today. Google street view should be able to help with that. But what was the area like in your ancestors’ era, was the area well to do or poor? Census returns may help, also street directories will show the local amenities, were there theatres, churches, schools etc. in the area for example.
Whilst for the inside try searching local Property Agencies as many leave internal views on their websites long after a building has been sold or rented. How was the accommodation arranged in the past? Sue showed a sketch, as an example from her own family’s shop. On the ground floor behind the shop you came to the kitchen/scullery so the shopkeeper and other family members could be on call, even during meal times. The premises may also have had a basement store with the family living on the upper floors... above the store. To see the inside of shop in the past you might try books of old photographs, local history magazines such as Bygone Kent. Also, via a computer search you will find websites with old photographs, such as the Frances Frith collection.
There are also websites such as British Association for Local History https://www.balh.org.uk/ and sites like Virtual Mitchell http://www.mitchelllibrary.org/virtualmitchell/ The British Library has an old photograph section, as do most local studies libraries, which Sue said is a much-underused source.
Sue also recommended Phillip Chapman’s book Illuminating your family history with picture postcards. Many local towns hold postcard fairs, and the Postcard Traders Association website gives much useful information on the subject https://postcard.co.uk/
Other excellent sources for research are large scale maps and plans, land registers and local planning applications, you can find archived in local studies libraries and county archives. Also Valuation Office Survey map & field books for London are on Ancestry and on the following link http://www.tracemyhouse.com/valuation-survey.html
2) The Occupation of the shop – Sue listed the basic skills that anyone running a shop would need, especially in the past. For the long hours of hard work, they would need energy, stamina and self-motivation, plus, other family members to share the load. They would need to be a good organiser, with business acumen, capital, numeracy, book keeping abilities, literacy and have good communication skills.
What trade were they involved in? Was it specialised involving skills requiring apprenticeships? Apprentice Indentures index from the late 17th century have been scanned and are available on the Society of Genealogists website. As not all apprentices could get an apprenticeship in their home town it is extremely helpful to discover the movement of our ancestors as some indentures give the apprentice's parent’s name and address plus those of their Master.
To understand more about trades and occupations Sue recommended The Book of English Trades 1818 which is available for a free download from: https://archive.org/details/bookofenglishtra00unse
Sue suggested large department stores that have been around for several centuries, such as House of Fraser, often have records archived about their start and progression. You may find these on the British Library catalogue and collection https://www.bl.uk/catalogues-and-collections or in local archives. TNA discovery website may help you find where. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Museums of occupations such as the Northampton Shoe Museum https://www.northamptonshirebootandshoe.org.uk/ Trade manuals e.g. Thomas Finney’s, Handy Guide: for the Use of Pork Butchers, which may be found in libraries or for sale online.
Craft and Trade Guilds originated in the 13/14th century and their surviving records may be found in local Records Offices. Boyd’s inhabitants of London 14th to 19th century has some quite detailed information on families and can be seen on Find my past. Schools and Charities were set up by Livery companies. The City of London Livery Companies Libraries e.g. The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. The Haberdashers Company. Sue said that their archives are often not that busy and staff are particularly helpful to researchers.
Trade Associations, minutes of meetings are often published verbatim. For working conditions Sue recommended Charles Booth’s survey ‘Life and labour of the people in London’ https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/what-was-the-inquiry which covers conditions, wages, training, occupational hazards and illnesses etc. and is relevant to the rest of Britain. Extremely long working hours in the 19th century, 7 to 10/11 on weekdays and Sunday opening, triggered the early closing movement. Reports of Sir John Lubbock’s campaign to reduce hours make informative reading https://www.jstor.org/stable/724909
3) The individuals – As well as the census you may find them listed in court cases both assizes and petty sessions, business guides, telephone directories, etc. Shops tended to invest in telephones especially in affluent neighbourhoods where well-off customers liked to telephone in orders. These might be delivered by a shop boy on a bike or a cart or even a van.
Maybe they invented items to aid their business? Information about Patents of inventions and design records of the Patent Office can be found on TNA https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/patents-of-invention/
Shopkeepers were regarded as pillars of the community and as such held such offices as Churchwarden, Directors of Local Schools and surprisingly still had time have hobbies and join Clubs and Societies. They may appear in newspapers for these extra-curricular activities. British Library newspaper archive, local libraries and SoG all hold newspapers.
Shopkeepers were tax payers, held Fire insurance, were investors and these records should not be overlooked. Also they were often Freemasons and the museum of Freemasonry in London holds records of members https://www.ugle.org.uk/museum, as does the Kent museum of Freemasonry in Canterbury https://kentmuseumoffreemasonry.org.uk/.
Sue is currently writing a book for SoG on the subject of this talk which she hopes will be out in the not too distant future. Sue showed us that there is an abundance of information and sources out there for us to find out how our shopkeeper and shopworker ancestors lived. She managed to pack so many ideas of where to look into this interesting talk, that even if you do not have shopkeeper ancestors you will find many new avenues of ideas to use when researching how your ancestors once lived.
Report by Tricia Baxter