Hello Listers, I have no experience of researching family history in Worcs. and would appreciate some advice, please. My great grandfather, William TAYLOR, was living in Great Hampton at the time of the 1851 census, aged 14 and working as an Ag Lab. When he married in 1860 in Bordesley, Birmingham, he gave his occupation as 'wheelwright'. I assume that he would have had to serve an apprenticeship -- most probably in Worcs. Can someone please tell me if there are accessible apprenticeship records for Worcs. for the mid- 1800s and if so, where they are held. Kind regards Joan Rotorua New Zealand

Hello Joan, There'd certainly have been time for your William TAYLOR to have served a 7-year Apprenticeship between 1851 and his marriage - but records of Apprenticeships in rural areas are somewhat sparse. While Worcester Records Office has an "Index of Apprentices" the contents are almost exclusively of those within the City Boundaey, and recorded by the City Corporation. They *may* hold another index on cards or slips of other Apprentices (those "put out" by Poor Law Overseers) - but I can't be certain on that one. [Posted to List for possible correction by someone who knows more!] In general, though, a Rural Apprenticeship would be likely to be a Private Agreement between the Master, the Apprentice and the Apprentice's Guardian or Parent, drawn up as a Duplicate Deed (either by a local lawyer, or merely by copying an earlier one and changing the names - which would be cheaper all round) - and with no formal Registration anywhere. HTH Gus ----- Original Message ----- From: Joan Wood <joan.wood@paradise.net.nz> To: <ENG-WORCESTER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 11:45 AM Subject: [WOR] Apprenticeship records > Hello Listers, > > I have no experience of researching family history in Worcs. and would > appreciate some advice, please. > > My great grandfather, William TAYLOR, was living in Great Hampton at the > time of the 1851 census, aged 14 and working as an Ag Lab. When he married > in 1860 in Bordesley, Birmingham, he gave his occupation as 'wheelwright'. > I assume that he would have had to serve an apprenticeship -- most probably > in Worcs. > > Can someone please tell me if there are accessible apprenticeship records > for Worcs. for the mid- 1800s and if so, where they are held. > > Kind regards > Joan > Rotorua > New Zealand > > > ==== ENG-WORCESTER Mailing List ==== > Transcribers wanted for Worcestershire FreeREG > for more information see http://freereg.rootsweb.com > UK Census on-line > http://freecen.rootsweb.com/ > http://www.worcestershiresurnames.co.uk/ > >