Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Workday Wednesday Challenge: Occupations in Census Records

Yesterday was my lucky day! I was one of the five GeneaBloggers who won a one-year Archives.com  subscription in Geneabloggers' Archives.com US Federal Census Contest. As explained in Workday Wednesday - Labor Day Edition - Ancestors' Occupations and the Census, I already have a subscription so I am "re-gifting" it by offering it as the prize for this Workday Wednesday Challenge.

Keeping in the spirit of my entry post, here is the challenge:

1. Select an ancestor whom you have found in at least three censuses.
2. Review the occupational information found on each census and write a blog post (or a comment to this post) giving at least the following information:
  • Name of the ancestor and your relationship
  • The occupation recorded in each census year
  • Other information you find such as the industry in which the ancestor worked, whether they were unemployed, etc.
  • Do you know of other occupations your ancestors engaged in, but are not reflected in census records?
3. If you are writing a post on your own blog, paste a link in the comments below.
4. Deadline for entries is midnight (Pacific time) Wednesday, 14 September 2011; winner will be selected at random from all entries and announced on Thursday, 15 September.

Here's mine as an example:

Ambrose B. (A.B.) Martindale, my paternal great-grandfather (1844-1918)

  • 1880 - Works in saw mill - Jackson Twp., Carter Co., Missouri 
  • 1900 - Saw mill owner - Nacogdoches Co., TX
  • 1910 - Operator, saw mill - Nacogdoches Co., TX - census indicates he is an employer

In 1894 Ambrose was appointed the first postmaster in Carmona, Polk Co., TX; at the time I believe he was also managing a saw mill.



© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the challenge. I've glanced at my ancestors' occupations before, but never really did an in-depth study. My contribution to the challenge can be found at the link below.
    http://ancestrallychallenged.blogspot.com/2011/09/workday-wednesday-occupations.html

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  2. This is interesting. I think I will do it. I'll post back when I complete.

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  3. I wrote about my Great Grandfather Lewis Cleage who was born about 1852 in McMinn County, TN. http://cleage.blogspot.com/2011/09/lewis-cleage-work-day-wednesday.html

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  4. Thanks! This was fun trying to decide who to use for the blogpost. I generally think that I come from Farmers but there are a bunch of other occupations sprinkled in my history.

    http://upinthetree.blogspot.com/2011/09/workday-wednesday-dudley-moses-mitchell.html

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  5. Thanks for participating in the Workday Wednesday Challenge. I enjoyed reading all of your posts.

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