Occupations

How can you learn what your ancestor did for a living?

• Census records
• City Directories
• Obituaries
• Advertisements
• Given in official records, e.g. marriage records

Dictionaries

• Glossary of Occupations part 1 and part 2.
• List of Obsolete Occupations in Genealogy (Medieval And Obsolete English Trade And Professional Terms)
• A List of Days Gone By Occupations
• Colonial Occupations
• Old Occupation Names. (An alphabetical dictionary of old occupations-- UK based) ; See also List of Occupations
• Dictionary of Ancient Occupations and Trades, Ranks, Offices and Titles, (with emphasis on England and 16th and 17th century colonies).

Farmers

Physicians

• Directory of Deceased American Physicians 1804-1929 (CD) (based on a 1993 2 volume set (find in a library).
• Medical Obituaries; American Physician's Biographical Notices in Selected Medical Journals Before 1907. published 1981 (find in a library)
• Selected Sources for Biographical Information about 17th-Early 20th c. American Physicians (.pdf)-- a bibliography
• There is often a section in county histories that covers the early and well known physicians in an area.

Railroad Workers:

See article in Ancestry Magazine May/June 2005 vol. 24 no. 1 pp. 16-23
Reference book: Directory of North American Railroads, Associations, Societies, Archives, Muesums and Their Collections., compiled by Holly T. Hansen, 1989. (find in a library)
The U.S. Rail Road Retirement Board has a web site with information on how to locate and obtain Rail Road Pension Records

Occupation not an honorable one? Try Black Sheep Ancestors