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Researching Occupations for Genealogy

Building an occupational profile of an individual in your lineage may help you advance your family history. This guide contains ideas and specific sources for identifying the work history of your ancestors.

Census documents

Census records typically include occupational information and can include employers’ names or phrases like “in school” or “keeping house” to describe unpaid work of women and children. Beyond national/federal censuses, be sure to check state and town census documents if they exist. Available on Ancestry, FamilySearch, NARA and many other genealogy search platforms.

City directories

Initially created for salesmen wishing to make business contacts in a particular area, town and city directories frequently listed valuable demographic information including occupation and employers.

Available on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Library of Congress and many other genealogy search platforms.

Tax Records

  • 1798 direct tax records
    In 1798, Congress authorized the first direct tax by the United States government. These records, available from NARA, on Ancestry and from FamilySearch list occupational information.
  • IRS tax assessment lists, 1862-1918
    1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later became the IRS) The records on Ancestry have occupation information. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1264/
  • State and municipal tax records
    Available in many places including Ancestry, FamilySearch and state and municipal archives.

Demographic work permits

The existence of work certificates or work permits varies according to what government laws were in place when your ancestor might have been working.

Examples:

Professional affiliations

Trade unions, professional associations, licensing agencies keep files and lists of working people.

Examples:

Specific employer databases

Many well-known companies and employers with regional, national or worldwide name recognition have digitized archival registries of employees from earlier times. 

Workplace accidents documents

These exist largely in mining, railroad and other organized industrial occupations.

Example: Mining Accidents, 1839-2006 (Ancestry.com)

Military service records

Military service records can tell you a great deal about the nature and scope of your ancestors’ work in the armed forces. Some questions that can be answered by finding your ancestors’ military records are listed here. Major genealogy platforms such as Fold3, Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage all have military service records as well as the national archives in the United States and abroad.

  • Did my ancestor serve in war or peace time?
  • Did they enlist or were they drafted?
  • What units did they serve and in what role?
  • Did they receive a military pension?

Draft records

Military draft records usually list an occupation and sometimes and employer for the individual.

Indentured Servants

More than half of all European immigrants to the United States between the 17th and 18th centuries came as indentured servants. Indentured servitude was usually a contracted agreement documented by government authority. Many records exist listing the names of indentured servants, men and women held in bondage, etc.

Examples:

“Women’s work” — unpaid labor

Was your ancestor keeping house, minding children, giving birth, nursing babies or caring for the elderly. Was she running an undeclared business from home? Women’s unpaid labor may not be documented by government authorities, but an understanding of what the work entailed at the time they lived can add facts and texture to your family history. Historians and economists agree that historical census data significantly undercounts women’s work.

The work of enslaved ancestors

Slaves were brought to America as prisoners and bought and sold as property to work for white enslavers. Tracing the work life of an African American ancestor from up through the post Civil War period is complicated and can be frustrating. The slave records that exist are business records. A variety of manifests, account books, probate records, manumission documents, Freedman’s Bureau Records and slave census records exist that may help you document the work life of an enslaved ancestor. Researching enslaved people who lived before the US Civil War poses unique and sensitive challenges requiring specific, wholly focused research guides.

Here are some recommended guides:

Consider the context

If you have no idea what day to day work your ancestor did, seek out expert analysis of work history to consider the context of what work was like during their lifetime. According to this chart, in 1850, agricultural work was king of the US economy. Compare that to the trade and healthcare sectors today.

visualizing 150 years of U.S. employment history
Image from the World Economic Forum Website
Datasource: IPUMS USA 2017US Bureau of Labor Statistics McKinsey Global Institute Analysis
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/02/visualizing-150-years-of-u-s-employment-history/

Very broad timeline of US labor events and laws for understanding ancestors' work

  1. Colonial America’s pre-industrial age or wood and water 17th-to-mid-19th century

    Work involved fish, farms, furs and forests. Most early Americans were involved in agriculture. Only about 10-18% took part in crafts and artisanal trades.

  2. 1870s-1880s Gilded Age

    expansion of industrialization from 1860-90, unequal distribution of wealth was high, working conditions were frequently precarious. US had the highest rate of accidents in the world.

  3. 1877 Great Railroad Strike

    100,000 workers struck due to wage cuts, inhumane conditions, federal and state forces broke the strike. 100 people died, but the labor movement grew.

  4. 1880

    US manufacturing sector employed 15% of workforce

  5. 1884

    US Bureau of Labor Statistics begins to collect employment data

  6. 1890-1930

    Early Workplace Accidents Rights Laws on Books in many states

  7. Panic of 1893

    affected most sectors of the US economy, significant economic depression

  8. 1900 United States Census

    1 in 6 children under the age of 16 in “gainful occupations.”

  9. 1900

    more than 1 million people working in railroads

  10. 1905 National Child Labor Committee

    private, nonprofit org for children’s workplace safety

  11. 1909

    20,000 female shirtwaist workers strike to protest unfair wages

  12. 1915

    US Employment Service begins functioning as a work placement agency for immigrants

  13. 1916 Federal Compensation Act

    workplace benefits for sick and injured workers

  14. 1929-1939 Great Depression

    1 in 4 Americans unemployed, 15 million jobless

  15. 1934 Bureau of Labor Standards

    Predecessor of OSHA, had regulatory power to draft labor laws and prepare factory inspection manuals and training courses

  16. 1935 Social Security Act

    begins payment of benefits to the elderly, disabled, unemployed

  17. 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act

    the right to a minimum wage, prohibited minors from working in “oppressive” environments, 8-hour workday, 40 hour work week, overtime pay.

  18. WWII

    nearly 36% of American women were in the workforce, a big shift

  19. 1944

    manufacturing was 38% of the American workforce

  20. 1963 Equal Pay Act

    bans wage discrimination based on gender

  21. 1964 Civil Rights Act

    prohibits work discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Keyword ideas for searching for evidence of your ancestors’ work 

  • workhouses
  • Indentures
  • Work affidavits
  • Work permits
  • Youth employment licenses
  • Civil servant
  • Employment Permits (Minn)
  • Certificates of age (CT)
  • Age certificate
  • Minors work certificate (NY)
  • Employment certification
  • Trade union membership
  • Apprentice register
  • “guardian’s records”
  • Records of negros
  • Manumission
  • apprentices
  • Pensions, pensioners

Links for more information