Germany Business and Occupations: Difference between revisions

A very interesting document for a genealogist is a ''Wanderbuch'', which was used as a passport journeyman craftsmen.  

The author, Otto Döhner, whose great grandfather owned a Wanderbuch, offers insights into this document in an essay published in ''Archiv für Sippenforschung'' Jahrgang 46, Heft 78 (1980), page 407. The Wanderbuch gives instructions of how to conduct oneself as a journeyman. Foremost, one has to avoid misappropriated itinerancy and begging. Where a candidate does not appropriate any work within 24 hours, he should not remain without official consent. He should receive a statement from the master if he was going to be employed or not or why he could not take the offered position. There was imprisonment imposed if compliance was lacking.  

The next portion of the Wanderbuch deals with the detailed description of the person. Stature, eyes, hair, nose, mouth and face, give the genealogist a good idea of what an ancestor looked like. Further pages reveal where in the German speaking world an ancestor may have apprenticed. Detailed entries follow of what the purpose of the candidate is, where he came from, where he is going, how he conducted himself, how long he intends to stay.  

More details can be discovered in the above mentioned periodical.