If you know your ancestor was an apprentice, you could help a research project at the London School of Economics into the history of apprenticeship.

Apprenticeship is one of the most enduring features of British history. Yet we know very little about how time spent as an apprentice fitted into the lives of people in the past. We are asking for the public’s help to fill in this gap in historical knowledge.

Thanks to the painstaking work of a generation of researchers, lists of apprentices exist for many British guilds and towns and cities. We are looking for family historians who have found their ancestors in these lists. They can help us connect the young people who became apprentices to evidence about the family they came from, which will allow us to understand much more about how apprenticeship worked.

If you have identified an ancestor of yours in one of the lists of apprentices in London or any other British town or city (or village!), then you could make a valuable contribution. To find out how to help by telling us about your apprentice ancestor, please visit the project website at www.patrickwallis.net