How To Find Your Nail-Maker Ancestors

You will have to think outside the box to locate the nailers in your family tree

As an unregulated occupation, there are few specialised records relating to nail-makers. Formal apprenticeships were rare, and where they did occur will be in parish apprenticeship records; Worcestershire Archives has an online index at bit.ly/worcs-arch-apprentices.

Since nailing families often lived on the edge economically, you may find them in Poor Law records receiving support from the parish or workhouse. Newspapers may carry reports of strikes and of campaigns set up to help the nailers improve their conditions, so search britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Your ancestors may also turn up in court records as a result of a dispute with a nail-master or fogger.

In addition, local archives may have nailers’ account books. For example, Derbyshire Record Office ( derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/ record-office/derbyshire-record-office.aspx) has one for Samuel Mason, a Belper nailer (D1370/ZB/1). Weekly entries for 1872–1882 show individual names, with detailed figures for quantities of iron and nails and the prices paid.

In census records, look not just for your own family but neighbouring families as well, to get an idea of the prevalence of the trade locally.