THEY are calling it Careers Reunited. A surprising number of people using family tree websites to trace their ancestors are discovering that they have ended up in the same jobs as forebears they never knew existed.

The findings have presented the question of whether it is possible that we are predetermined to do certain types of work and that the key to our choice of career lies in our genes. Genes Reunited, the genealogy website, was so struck by the phenomenon that it investigated further.

In addition to large numbers of people who found they came from a long line of sailors, watchmakers and the like, it found that growing numbers of people were turning to their family trees for evidence of a “grand design” that would give them guidance on what kinds of jobs they are likely to be good at. Of the 3,000 respondents to a survey, 71 per cent said that they had come to their family history to seek out patterns, such as a bias towards a particular occupation or a penchant for a certain talent.

Patrick Hayward, 77, a watchmaker who followed his father into the clock-repair business, is a typical example. It was through research on Genes Reunited that he discovered that he was the latest in a line of master watchmakers going back five generations. He is convinced that the patience a good watchmaker requires is something he simply inherited.

“I believe that things like patience are just something passed down in the family. I was never really taught to be a watchmaker, I just knew instinctively what to do when I was given my first clock to repair, ” he said.

Eric Harrison, a sociologist at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, is sceptical — even though both his parents and his brother are academics too. Instead of a genetic predisposition to certain jobs, he believes the forces at work here are connected to inherited cultural capital.

“It’s to do with the set of knowledge and values that surround you as you grow up that you might pick up unconsciously,” he said. It is also to do with risk. “The more you know about an occupation, the less risk there is in going into it because you already know what the benefits of it are.”

Michael Osbaldeston, of City and Guilds, said that the tradition of jobs passing down the generations went back to the ancient crafts guilds. “In those days skills were closely guarded and valuable secrets were passed down,” he said.

He does, however, believe it is possible that genes play a role for those who go in for crafts and creative vocations.

“If people are artistic, that can come out in the genes,” he said.

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