GenFriends~Labor Day:What Was Your Ancestor's Occupation?

In this episode of GenFriends Melissa Barker, Kathryn Lake Hogan and Christine Woodcock I discuss our ancestor's occupations. We talk about why you should know and tips on where to find documents and clues to what they did for a living.

Click on the link below to watch:

Why? Knowing your ancestor's occupation can help you
-distinguish between same-named people
-add to their stories
-lead to other records types.

How? Some places to look
-census records
-death records
-military records
-probate records
-photos 
-family stories
-ephemera-paperwork, badges, souvenirs
-clothing
-school records
-obituaries
-newspaper articles and adds
-county histories

Once you've found the occupation, look for records it might suggest.
Did they have to attend school or apprentice to have that job? 
Are there clubs or societies associated with it?

Look for museums and historical societies having displays or other information on the occupation to learn what it may have been like for your ancestor. 

Read! Look for articles and books devoted to the work your people did for a living.

Have you discovered your ancestor's occupation? What source gave you the answer?
We love to hear from you!
Thanks so much for watching!



Want to contact this week's panelists?
Melissa Barker-The Archive Lady
Kathryn Lake Hogan-Looking 4 Ancestors
Christine Woodcock -Genealogy Tours of Scotland
Cheri Hudson Passey-Carolina Girl Genealogy


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Helping you climb your family tree,

52 Ancestors Week 36: Dry Goods Clerk

Manning David Daughrity, Jr. (light suit)
Dry Goods Clerk
Late 1920's
© Cheri Hudson Passey

   Labor Day is a great time to think about what your ancestors did to support themselves and their families. 
    
 This week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2015 Edition has us doing just that with the prompt Working For a Living. 
   There are several ways to find out about your ancestors occupation. 

    One way is from family stories. My maternal Grandmother, Azile Juanita (Daughrity) Roberts Sullivan (1921-2009) told me of her father Manning David Daughrity, Jr. (1889-1931) working as a clerk in a department store in Sumter, South Carolina. The picture above, given to me by my grandmother, shows David and several other employees. The store was at one time called WM Folsom, Co. and was a dry goods store on Main St. in Sumter, SC. At some point the store may have become a JCPenney's as family members tell of David working there. 

 Military Records can also help determine an occupation.
  This 1917 World War I Registration Card filled out by David Daughrity helps to confirm the family story.  He writes that his present occupation is clerk and that his employer is WM Folsom, Co. in Sumter, South Carolina.

WWI Draft Registration Card
Manning David Daughrity
Sumter County, SC
Ancestry.com image

  Census Records are another way to discover what your ancestor did for a living. In this 1930 Census from Sumter County, South Carolina, David Daughrity's occupation is filled in as being a clerk in a dry goods store.
        

1930 Sumter County, SC Federal Population Census
Image from ancestry.com

   Clues to employment can also be found in obituaries.  David Daughrity's 1931 obituary from the The State (Columbia, SC) includes information about his job working in the dry goods business. It also states that he had been ill and had to retire.

Obituary of Manning David Daughrity, Jr.
The State, Columbia, SC June 10, 1931, pg. 6

     These are just a few examples of how different record groups can be helpful in determining where and how our ancestors supported their families. Newspaper stories, city directories, tax lists, and probate records can also help to determine employment.
 What record groups have you used to discover the occupation of your ancestors?

Are we kin? Please contact me. Together we can find our people.
Thanks so much for stopping by!


 

Celebrating Women's History Month- Occupation: Weaver

Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation. 

  My Great Great Grandmother Bessie Mae Eargle Price is listed in the census records as either having no occupation or keeping house until 1920. From what I can gather from family stories her husband Campbell "Cam" Price was constantly moving them from place to place as he looked for work. He worked in the Textile Mills in the Richland and Aiken County areas of S.C.
At one point it looks like the family was in Alabama as well.

Bessie's son Frank wrote the following about his family:

"In early 1917 they lived 12 miles out Percival Rd.  Campbell was working at Camp Jackson.  Bessie would take lunch for about 75 in a wagon.  She got food already prepared from the bakery."
  
  Reports of the families poor living conditions leads me to believe that Bessie was selling the lunches to the workers for money. I can't imagine that they could afford to feed the workers for free. It leaves me to wonder if she had other ways of making money as well even if the census reported "no occupation" or "keeping house". That was probably true of most woman.  

  The 1920 Census of Richland County, SC has Bessie's occupation was a Weaver in the Cotton Mill. Mill work provided income and a place to live. Each Mill had a "Mill Village" that provided housing for it's employees.
  Sometime in 1922, Campbell Price, Bessie's husband disappeared. The family story is that he just never came home one day. Bessie and her son's moved to Aiken County, SC, where the family was from, and in 1930 her sons are listed as working at the Cotton Mill there and Bessie is listed as having no occupation.
 Times were very hard on the family. By 1937 they had moved back to Richland County. Son Frank was killed when a train hit his car on the way home from work at the Mill.  Bessie was given monetary compensation from the railroad for the loss of her son. With the money she received she was able to buy a house where she was lived comfortably until she died in 1943. 

Bessie Mae Eargle
1884-1943
On Front Porch of Home in Columbia, SC-1942
© Cheri Hudson Passey

 A generation of Cotton Mill workers followed. Bessie's daughter, my great grandmother Beulah Mae Price Roberts (1897-1980) began working in the Mills in 1940. Beulah and her daughters, along with her husband and sons worked in the Textile Mills in North and South Carolina.
She, like her mother before her. had to travel where the work was. Beulah Mae Price Robert's death certificate says she was retired from Hermitage Mill Camden, SC.


 For more information about The Celebrating Women's History Month Blog Posts visit Lisa Alzo at
 The Accidental Genealogist

© 2013 Cheri Hudson Passey