Genealogy Chat

nudge for Sandra

Just to say many thanks Betty - I have just downloaded the toolbar and it is fantastic - I hadn't heard of it before.

Now if we knew that...........!

Spades and shovels anyone??

Hi everyone, and many thanks for all your very prompt help. The 'measuring worth' site is particularly good. The one at ww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default.asp#mid also does the trick. Next question is where did my ancestors bury that money...?

...Dugless

I think I'll pm Dugless and see if this info is helpful!

Further to money conversions -

the fabulous Genealogy Tool Bar has these from 1264 - 2006. It also has lots of other useful info and none of us should be without it! Just google and install for free.

Betty

Yes, this actually uses a site called "Measuring Worth"

http://www.measuringworth.com/index.html

You need to select the option Purchasing Power UK £s

The interesting thing about this site is that not only working out the cost today of an item, it also tells you the amount that average earnings have increased also.

So £1 spent in 1900 would cost you £77 today. But, based on average earnings is worth £421. This tells us that we are earning nearly 5.5 times as much as our ancestors were then.

Going back to 1950 £1 spent would now cost us nearly £25. But again based on earnings is £73, so again this tells us that we are earning nearly 3 times our fathers and grandfathers were.

When I started work in 1970 as a qualified bank clerk / cashier, I was paid £650 a year. This equates to only £7,250 today - far less than the minimum wage, yet I was getting far more than the average clerk was due to my qualifications.

Today, in earning terms which have gone up by about 1.8 time, bank cashiers get around £12-£13 k today.

A very fascinating subject.

PS Aparently George Stephenson, of railway fame was the first engineer to be worth £1 million, and that was around 1840.

Thanks for that..I will take a look later on.
.

Try this. It's very interesting. Regards.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default.asp

Did I mishear, or did Kevin Whateley on last night’s WDYTYA say he used a facility at the National Archive to work out how much a sum of money many years ago was worth now? Is this facility available on line? I’ve tried searching TNA’s website and keep getting pages on tax and such like when all I need is a simple calculator. Any ideas?
...Dugless