24 Places Where You Can Find Your Ancestors Occupation

If you are like me, you want to know as much as possible about the lives of your ancestors. Determining their stories is a challenge, especially if no one is alive who remembers the ancestor you are researching.

But fortunately, many documents record at least, the occupation of the target ancestor, and that can tell you a lot about the person.

Knowing how the ancestor worked tells you a lot about how they lived and possibly their standing in the community.

Here is a list of where you might find your ancestors’ occupations:

• Census Records
• City Directories
• Draft Cards
• Death Certificates
• Passenger Lists
• Birth Certificate/Record of the child –  the parents’ occupations are often provided
• Military Enlistment and Other Records
• Photographs –  although not written – if in some kind of uniform, this can be a good hint as to occupation
• Marriage Certificates
• Voter Registrations
• Mortuary Records
• Naturalization Records
• Passport Applications
• Patent Applications
• Social Security Applications – Employer’s name is often included
• Obituaries
• Membership in Fraternal Societies
• Union Membership Documents
• Wills/Probate
• Newspaper Articles of all kinds – Legal notices, advertisements, and classified ads are often useful
• Miscellaneous Court Documents
• Apprenticeship Records
• Recorded local and town histories
• Alumni Directories

Was one of your ancestor’s occupations a word that you don’t understand?

Make sure and check out the “280 Old Occupations Used in the Census and Newspapers in the U.S. and U.K.” Quicksheet. Click on the blue link to download the list of Old Occupations pdf

Download the Quicksheet PDF

To obtain the one-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of where you can find information about your ancestors’ occupations, you can download it by clicking on the Download button below:

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets

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