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 there is no one alive who remembers the ancestor that you are researching.
But fortunately, there are a number of documents that 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 are several places where you can determine what your ancestors did in their “work-life”:
- Census Records
- City Directories
- Draft Cards
- Death Certificates
- Passenger Lists
- Birth Certificate/Record of the child
- Military Enlistment and Other Records
- Photographs
- 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 occupation 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.at Old Occupations
