An occupational record is a genealogy resource that is often overlooked.
An ancestor’s job can reveal so much about their lives. Occupations help you guess a person’s income, daily life, and social status. Work can explain migrations, and it places people in communities of coworkers.
Work records can also contain a wealth of genealogical clues. Whether you’re looking for your relatives’ stories or family tree details, looking for occupation records is worth the work.
Where would you find an occupational record? Here are some places to look!
Census records – beginning in 1850, the census records listed details about the occupation of the individuals of the household. The 1880 census asked how long a person had worked at their current job.
City directories – Oftentimes, your ancestor had their occupation listed in the city directory. For instance, my grandmother was listed as a seamstress in one city directory, and my grandfather was listed as working at the Mengel Plant here in Laurel, MS.
Draft registrations – men who registered for the WWI draft were asked for their trade and employer information. WWII draft registration cards requested the name and place of an employer.
Newspaper clippings or obituaries – some of these records contain almost an entire family history. They could list anything from surviving members, who they were preceded in death by, where the person worked, and where they lived.
Employment record – if you are lucky enough to find an employment record, you have a treasure in your hands. From this record, you can determine if your ancestor has lived in the area for a long amount of time or if they recently moved. You could also find dates of birth, citizenship, marital status, and a physical description. There could also be notes about next of kin.
Some helpful websites are ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and ArchiveGrid, www.researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/, a free online catalog with over 7 million archival holdings in over 1,400 libraries, archives, and museums. Search it using occupations, employers, and places as keywords.
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