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People by profession by country: registers, archives and famous examples
People by profession by country: which trades each nation licensed, who kept the register, which archive holds the record today, and how Dürer, Franklin and Lincoln read through theirs.
The same job title means different things in different countries, and the difference is not linguistic. It is regulatory: who is allowed to use the title, who admits them, and what record that admission leaves behind.
People by profession by country is a records question before it is a biography question: a person's trade is only as traceable as the register that admitted them, and the register belongs to a place and a date.
What to take away
- A protected title has a register behind it; an unprotected one usually leaves no central record at all.
- England licensed physicians and attorneys from the 1500s; most other trades waited until the 1800s.
- Guild admission books survive for German and Italian cities; Swedish towns kept their own.
- Where no register exists, tax rolls, city directories and census occupation columns are the substitute.
- The holding archive, not the current regulator, is usually where the historical register sits.
Registers and holding archives by country
| Country | Trade | Register | Where it sits now |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Physician | Bishop's licence to practise | County record offices, Lambeth Palace Library |
| England | Attorney | Roll of attorneys and solicitors | The National Archives, Kew |
| Scotland | Notary | Court of Session admission | National Records of Scotland |
| France | Notary | Minutes and admission rolls | Archives nationales (Minutier central des notaires, Paris); departmental archives, e.g. Archives départementales de la Gironde |
| Germany | Goldsmith, baker | Guild admission and apprentice books | Stadtarchiv Nürnberg; Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg |
| Sweden | Town craftsman | Guild and burgher rolls | Riksarkivet and the regional landsarkiv, e.g. Landsarkivet i Göteborg |
| United States | Physician | State medical board register | State archives and board offices, e.g. Texas State Library and Archives Commission |
| United States | Barber, plumber | Municipal licence register | City clerk, county recorder |
The distinction that matters is between qualification, permission, and practice. A degree record shows qualification, and a licence shows permission on a date. Neither shows the work was done.
Qualification vs Permission vs Practice
Qualification
- What it shows
- Degree record
- Example
- University degree
- Question answered
- Trained?
Permission
- What it shows
- Licence on a date
- Example
- Bishop's licence
- Question answered
- Allowed?
Practice
- What it shows
- That work was done
- Example
- Employment record
- Question answered
- Worked?
England and Scotland
English physicians were licensed by bishops from 1511, and the licence names the applicant, the diocese and the date. Attorneys were enrolled from the sixteenth century, and the surviving rolls are held at The National Archives at Kew.
Scottish notaries came under the Court of Session's authority after a 1563 Act. The National Records of Scotland holds the Court of Session records, alongside the commissary court records that name tradesmen in testaments.
France and Germany
French notaries kept minutes that name every party to a contract, including their trade, and the minutes are held by departmental archives, with the Paris notaries' minutes at the Archives nationales. A search starts with the department, then the notary's own register.
German guilds admitted members through an apprenticeship that ended with a masterpiece, and the admission book names the applicant, the trade, the town and the year.
City archives hold the books where they survive; state archives hold the supervising authority's copies.
The general shape of these regimes, and how much they vary, is set out in surveys of occupational licensing, among them Morris Kleiner's Licensing Occupations (2006) and the 2015 Treasury framework.
Sweden and the United States
Swedish towns required a burgher oath before a craftsman could trade, and the burgher rolls name the trade and the date. Regional archives hold them, and the rolls often run from the seventeenth century.
American licensing is state by state and starts late. Medical boards began registering in the 1870s and 1880s; barber and plumbing licences often date from the twentieth century. The register sits with the state board or the state archives, and the board's own history page usually says what it inherited.
In Texas, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission lists a Texas Medical Board record group that includes registers confirming the credentials of those practising medicine.
Before state licensing, entry to a trade usually ran through a formal training relationship, and that relationship generated documents because it was a contract. Indentures, admission books and freedom records name the parties, the trade, the town and the dates, which makes apprenticeship records some of the best occupational evidence for earlier periods.
Famous people read through their trade records
A trade record gives a famous person a place and a date at work, which is what a place-and-era question needs. Three examples show how the registers above are used.
- Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg.Born in Nuremberg in 1471, he trained first in his father's goldsmith workshop. Nuremberg is the city whose Stadtarchiv appears in the Germany row above, so the city archive, not a national one, is the first place to ask about a goldsmith's household.
- Benjamin Franklin, Boston.Born in Boston in 1706, Franklin was apprenticed at twelve to his brother James, a printer, in 1718. A contract of that kind names the parties, the trade and the term, which is why apprenticeship records rank among the best occupational evidence.
- Abraham Lincoln, Illinois.Lincoln was licensed to practise law in Illinois in 1836. American attorney admission runs state by state, so the record sits with the state court that admitted him, not with a national register.
None of the three records says where the family came from. Each fixes where and when the person worked, and that is the claim a trade register can carry.
When there is no register
Most occupations, in most periods, had none. What substitutes:
Substitutes When No Register Exists
- Employment records if employer archive survives
- Trade and city directories
- Union and mutual society records
- Census occupation entries
- Court, tax and probate records
Each is a partial frame, and combining them is the only way to get coverage. National archives describe which of these series they hold and how they are arranged in their genealogy research pages, which is a faster start than searching by name.
What the occupation field cannot carry
An occupation record establishes a relationship to a trade at a time and a place. For a famous person, that fixes where and when they worked, which supports a place or era claim. It does not establish where someone came from, what community they belonged to, or anything about their family, so an origin claim needs other records. The heritage rankings page explains why this site does not rank people by origin.
For how occupation labels are classified across nations, see people by country. For the jurisdiction problem underneath all of it, see people by US state as well.
Common questions
How do I find the controlling body for an occupation in a given country?
Start with the national archive's subject guides and the current regulator's own history page. Regulators usually describe what they took over and from whom, which points at the earlier records.
Is a directory listing evidence of practice?
It is evidence that someone was listed under that trade in that year. Directories were compiled commercially, and inclusion often depended on being found or on paying.
What if the title has no equivalent in the other country?
Describe the work rather than translating the title. A translated title implies an equivalence in training and permission that usually does not exist.
Do modern registers help with historical research?
Sometimes, because regulators inherit predecessor records. Ask what the regulator holds from before its own founding, and where the rest went.
