Tobacco and your ancestor

Did your ancestor work in the tobacco industry making of selling the product? Do you picture your ancestor with a cigarette or cigar in their mouth? Chances are that if they were in the trenches in WW1, or served during WW2, they smoked cigarettes.

The graph, showing mentions of the words cigar and cigarette in The Times by decade, illustrates the burgeoning importance of the cigarette following the introduction of machine production in the early 1880s and consequent reduced cost.