Findmypast.co.uk has just carried out a survey which has revealed that young Brits shy away from jobs that require hard graft and instead, one in six 18-24 year olds aspire to become a famous singer, actor or member of a band.

There has never been such a stark contrast between the career choices of today’s young people when compared to the manual jobs of their ancestors. In the 1911 census some of the most popular occupations recorded include working in domestic service, agriculture, mining, building and the cotton industry. In contrast, less than 1% of young Brits in the 21st century would like to have a manual job such as a builder or plumber.

Here you can see a 1911 census return for singer Tom Jones’ maternal grandparents, Albert Rees and Ada Jones, who were in the coal-mining industry. Jones is Tom’s stage rather than birth surname.

Click to enlarge

Debra Chatfield

Our marketing manager, Debra Chatfield (pictured right), says: “It seems the growing obsession with celebrity has really impacted on young people’s career choices these days, as our study reveals how the more non-traditional jobs now come high up on the wish-list.

“Times have certainly changed when it comes to young people’s career choices. A look at the 1911 census provides a fascinating insight into the professions of our ancestors and you can really see how times have dramatically changed. On the other hand, in some cases, it can be interesting to see how some families have carried the same profession down through the family tree to the modern day. In our recent study it was revealed that, worryingly, a fifth (22%) of those aged 18-24 years do not know what their ancestors did for a living.”

Find out what your ancestors did in our complete census records from 1841 to 1911.

You may have read in the news yesterday that 1911census.co.uk’s parent company, brightsolid, has bought Friends Reunited Group, which includes the Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited websites. We’re delighted to confirm that this is true.

It’s official: Sir Tom Jones, the world famous singer hailed as a Welsh icon, is actually three-quarters English.

The shocking news arrived with the launch of the Welsh 1911 census records earlier this week. The Times, The Mirror, the Daily Star, the Daily Express, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and Hello! magazine were quick to publish the story, announcing three of Jones’s grandparents hail from the West Country, not Wales.

Sir Tom Jones's paternal grandparents

His paternal grandparents (shown on the image above) were James Woodward, an ironmonger’s haulier born in Gloucestershire, and Anne Woodward, born in Wiltshire. His maternal grandmother, Ada Jones, who originated from Pontypridd, had parents from Somerset and Wiltshire. Sir Tom’s only wholly Welsh grandparent was his maternal grandfather Albert Jones, a miner from Cardiff. Albert and Ada Jones are shown below:

You can now download our presentation from the WhoDoYouThinkYouAre LIVE show at Olympia.

The first half shows just the slides, the second half repeats the slides but with our presentation notes on them, which is probably much more useful. Please be aware that it is quite a hefty download (6Mb). We have provided it in PDF format so everyone should be able to view it by downloading free Adobe Acrobat reader software.

We thought we’d give you a few dates for your diaries as 1911census.co.uk continues on our UK tour with the 1911 census classroom, 1911 shop and free lectures on using the census to trace your family tree back through time.

The next place we will be is once again in London, at the Best Of Britain show at the end of March. This is a massive event dedicated to British travel and tourist attractions and is produced in association with VisitBritain, so it’s a great excuse to plan your holiday at the same time.

For more information, including ticket prices, see the official show website.

We can also confirm we’ll be attending two large family history fairs later in the year, so put these dates and locations in your diaries now and we will send further information nearer the time:

York Racecourse, York: June 27th
Gateshead International Arena, Tyne & Wear: September 12th

Here are a few photos of the 1911 classroom and shop from the massively busy WhoDoYouThinkYouAre Live show in London at the weekend.

For those that could not make it, we will post our presentation from the classroom on the blog soon.

In the meantime, there are a few more photos available : click on any photo below to get to them.

Some interesting tweets on Twitter about the 1911 census. Normally I don’t spend much time with Twitter but interesting to see what people are finding (and this is a blog after all).

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=1911+census