Sons of the Soil: Researching our agricultural labouring ancestors

On 20th November the Fromus Centre, Saxmundham, held an audience waiting to find out how to trace their relatives who were involved in agriculture.  Dr Janet Few is President of the Family History Federation, and has vast experience in family, social and community history research.  She is an author, and also gives lectures here and abroad.

Janet ran through the timeline of British Agriculture 1750 – 1950, tracing the recording of the land from the Enclosure Act, the Tithe Commutation Act through to the Agriculture Act in 1947.  In 1851 there was a Census including acreage and number of employees on farms and estates; in 1873 a Return of Owners of the Land.  In the past, the agricultural workforce was far larger than today, and often a house went with the job, recorded in the Census.

Janet has a handout that lists many resources which can be helpful in our research, and can be found at
https://thehistoryinterpreter.wordpress.com/talks-and-presentations/handouts/.  Tithe maps and schedules are available at the National Archives and in County Record Offices — also books such as Nicola Verdon's "Working the Land: A History of the Farmworker in England from 1850 to the Present Day". 

Jenny Mann