We are coming up fast on the Labor Day holiday in the U.S. One of the joys of family history is getting to know your ancestors on a more personal level, and an important part of that is understanding what occupations they had. Some may have even changed jobs or occupations several times in their lives, due to life circumstances or personal choice.

Occupations in the United States

A good place to begin exploring your United States ancestors’ occupations is in The Family History Guide, with this Choice:

https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-united-statesf1.html#e

Here are the resources you’ll find there:

• FamilySearch—United States Business Records
• Ancestry Wiki—Business Owner Records, and Locating Business Records
• The Mercantile: Where Our Ancestors Shopped
• FamilySearch—United States Occupations
• Ancestry Academy video—Finding Your Ancestor’s Occupation
• Our Family Tree site—Learn how to find occupational records.
• Family History Daily—Explore a site with nearly 100,000 free occupational records
• Watch this video to go more in depth with using occupational records.
• Ancestry Academy video—Using Occupations to Trace Ancestors

Occupations in England

For information on work and occupation records in England, check out this Choice:

https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-england04.html#d

Here’s a summary what you’ll find:

• National Archives—Apprentices and Masters
• National Archives—Companies and Businesses dissolved in England
• National Archives—Company and business history records held by other archives
• Who Do You Think You Are—Occupations