Agricultural labouring constituted the most popular economic occupation in the villages.  The occupations listed refer in practically all cases only to the heads of household.  Of the thirty-four households in Aston Upthorpe, exactly half (seventeen households) contained a head of household who listed himself as an agricultural labourer.  Thirty-nine of the seventy-nine households in Aston Tirrold had an agricultural labourer as their main breadwinner.  Just over ten percent of Aston Tirrold households do not list an occupation.  Subsequent Census returns show greater detail.  For the rest of the century, almost sixty percent of Aston Tirrold households listed their head as an agricultural labourer.   In contrast, as time progressed, Aston Upthorpe reduced its proportion of households where the head worked on the land.

For the seventeen households where an agricultural labourer heads the family in Upthorpe we have fourteen different surnames (eighty-two percent).  Upthorpe contained two each of the following names: Pope, Didcock, and Parsons.  For the thirty-nine equivalent households in Aston Tirrold, we have only twenty-six names (sixty-seven percent).  Tirrold contained three or more mentions of the following names: Jarvis, Jones, Keate, King, and Parsons.  Tirrold contained two mentions of the following names; Collins, Strange, Lewingdon.  This difference between the two villages, of course, reflects that seen above for place of birth.  Tirrold has a much more introverted character than Upthorpe.

Like names do not necessarily have to equate with kinship, but systematic review of the Parish Records and use of genealogical software helps evaluate the full extent of kinship in these two villages.  Close study of the family relationships suggests that two important interlocking factors can help us explain the patterns separating and grouping the families of agricultural labourers.  On the one hand, we have families with or without a proven linkage.  On the other hand, we have family linkages that either stay within the same stratum or run across others.  Proven linkage appears in two ways: families with the same surname and families where linkages produced by marriage can be established.

Using these two interlocking factors, we can plot those families accordingly for each village.  In all cases, wherever a family appears in these matrices, the head of household recorded himself as an agricultural labourer in 1841.

We will discuss the families in the two right hand quadrants, those with apparent linkages to other families in the villages.  In the first place, we will discuss those families that occupy the top right quadrant of the matrix: those who have family linkages and where the families remain fixed within the agricultural labouring segment.  In Upthorpe, we have three: Jones, Lewingdon, and Shaw.  In Tirrold, we have ten: Barr, Bearfield, Blackall, Colins, Grove, Jarvis, Jones, King, Lay, and Strange.