Dad was a toolmaker, eventually becoming foreman of a toolroom at Chamberlain and Hookham. His father was apprenticed as a boilermaker then manufactured pram wheels at Ariel Wireworks becoming a factory owner, then losing the lot (he maintained two families!), his grandfather was a chainmaker in Oldswinford and Sheffield Brightside. He married the daughter of a French sea captain who sailed a privateer in the Napoleonic war who changed sides. His ggf was also a chainmaker then master blacksmith.
I'm the first male not to work in the metal trades. Though my school in Smethwick taught us to braze, weld and use a lathe. Dad died when I was a baby, I often wonder if I would have followed him into the metal trades had he lived. The road not taken. There are long generations in my family.
Mom's people were cooks and gardeners in service and before that carters and canalboat workers in the Black Country. I've respect for those who work with their hands in metal and cooking and growing food and flowers.