Researching Your Ancestors' Occupation

Knowing your ancestors' occupation gives context to their life stories and can tell you a little bit

about how they lived. Fortunately, there are plenty of records to help you identify how your ancestors made a living.

Census Records
In 1850, the US Census began recording occupations. More recent censuses ask more detailed questions about a person's employer. Also, check the non-population schedules. Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Industry schedules give more details about a person's occupation. The Agriculture schedules for instance ask about acreage, livestock and crops grown on a farm. You'll see exactly what your ancestor farmed and how it compared to other farms in the neighborhood.

City Directories
City and county directories list residents with their addresses and occupations. You may discover their work address here too and possibly find an advertisement for their business.

Newspapers
News stories, obituaries, and even wedding announcements may include information on a person's occupation. Farmers' auctions and business news can give you further details about your ancestor's living. Search the local advertisement sections for business ads.

Tax Assessments Lists
IRS Assessment lists include information about occupation and income. They also list other luxuries your ancestor may have owned.

Military Records
Draft registrations asked for a person's employer. Pension records include information about a serviceman's military career and, occasionally, their post-military work and income.

Immigration Records
Passenger lists, emigration records, and passport applications may also note a person's occupation.

For Labor Day, Ancestry's occupation records are free to search through Monday!

Old Occupation titles

Occupations and titles have changed a lot throughout the centuries. Here are some interesting old job titles I've found:

Bagman	Traveling salesman
Ballad Monger	Sold printed ballads on the street
Bibliothecary	Librarian
Clicker	Servant who would stand outside a shop and invite people to enter the store
Colporteur	Bookseller
Eyer	Made eyes in needles
Farrier	Veterinarian and/or shod horses
Gelder	Castrated animals
Henchman	Groom
Lavendar	Washerwoman
Neatherder	Cow herder
Peregrinator	Itinerant wanderer
Plumber	Made sheet lead to be used in architecture, roofs, and stained glass
Revenuer	Federal officer concerned with illegal distilling
Snobscat	Shoe repairer
Stuff gown	Junior barrister
Tipstaff	Policeman
Vulcan	Blacksmith
Yardman	Railroad worker

If you're looking for more information on old occupations, About.com has a nice Glossary of Old Occupations & Trades and you may also want to check Cyndi's List for more information.

Researching Occupations

There are several places you can search to find the employee records of your ancestors. If you already know your ancestor's occupation or employer, here are some records you may want to search for.

Labor Union Records
Most labor unions kept membership records. Some records may be available at local archives but most will be held at union headquarters. If you're looking for Chicago-area records, you can contact the Illinois Labor History Museum for information about local unions and labor movements.

Railroad Records
Chicago is a great place to research railroad employee records. Railroad workers are interesting in that they received their own Social Security Numbers and their own special pensions. Pension records for railroad employees can be found at the Railroad Retirement Board in Chicago. The Chicago History Museum also has records for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Official Church Records
Many denominations kept or published directories of clergymen often with biographical information for each member of the clergy. These can be located at local church archives or at denomination headquarters.

Professional & Licensing Associations
Legal professionals are required to register with the state after passing the bar exam. Law directories have been published regularly since the 19th century and can often be found in law libraries or legal association archives. The American Medical Association has been keeping records on licensed medical practitioners since the 1800s as well. Many state archives will also have license records for lawyers, doctors, teachers, and any other professions that require licenses.

Indenture & Apprentice Records
If you're researching colonial ancestors you may find indenture or apprentice records. Information found in these records will vary but many of them will contain: the name of the apprentice, a parent or guardian's name, who they're being apprenticed to, location and length of the apprenticeship, the title of the trade and the types of skills the apprentice will be expected to perform. Some of these records will be government documents, others may belong to a church, some may have been more informal, private arrangements.

Other Places to Look:

• Civilian Personnel Records, Services for Federal Agencies
• Corporate Histories and Company Records
• Business Directories
• Trade Journals
• Bankruptcy Records (if your ancestor owned a business)

Celebrate Your Ancestors' Labor

On this upcoming Labor Day weekend, we will celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers. What did your ancestors do for a living? Researching your ancestors vital information is important but discovering your ancestors' occupations can help flesh out their lives and give you some interesting insight into how the family lived and their status within their communities.

Some common sources to discover your ancestors' occupations include:

• Census records
• City Directories
• Obituaries
• Newspapers
• Tombstones (Check out this tombstone in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago!)
• Social Security Administration SS-5 Application Form
• Wills
• Probate Records
• Pension Records

This is probably one of the most interesting--and revealing--genealogy topics you can research!