Jobs of your ancestors

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goldfish65

goldfish65

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Seen a member's thread where he discovered a great-grandmother was a fat lady in the circus. Thought it might be interesting if we start a list of occupations we know of further down our family trees. Just to remember those people who made the way for us and what they did. Many professions you don't see anymore. If you have photos, that would be cool.

1. Oil driller....My great-grandpa's business in New York State.
2. Engraver....Grandpa worked at Jewelry Store, engraved trophy's etc.
3. Clothing sales from home...grandma represented Klad-Ezee which made children's play-clothes, designed without buttons so kids could dress themselves easier and also not mess up their "good clothes."
 
My grandmother was a art and music teacher in her home. She had students from overseas come and spend years at her home. They had a very large home so my Dad said it was not much of a problem with all the people being there at the time. House was so big that during first world war army took it over to use as a hospital. Weird stuff back in the old days.
 
Great Grandfather was posing as a french man to get a job at Toledo scales and landed a job , they did not hire Indian's back then, thus posing .
My Grandmother worked in fields to feed America and traveled from Michigan to Florida each year, I worked beside her from age 7 to 16.
I never met a grandfather, the war took one of them, the other on my fathers side past before I could meet him.
 
Charles the Hammer.jpg

One of my ancestors turned back the Muslim invasion and saved Europe. Charles Martel of the Hammer.
 
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Great great great grandfather was a surgeon in the Union army. His son a lecturer, was at little bighorn a week after Gen Armstrong Custer got his *** kicked and he was also a snakeoil salesman like in Outlaw Jose Wales. His son orphaned at around 8 worked his way up through an advertising company and eventually bought it. He hired some educated guy with a college degree to pitch to Henry Ford to get the ford account, the guy got all flustered and blew it so he fired the guy and he grabbed a common sense blue collar fellow who worked for him, a 'dese an 'dose tings type of speaker and talked to Ford again and got the account. His son, my grandfather west point graduate and officer in France during the war and his brothers came back from the war, sold the business which was what made my great grandfather a millionaire before and during the depression, took the money moved to California and blew all the money on alcohol and cards. My dad restored horseless carriages and early automobiles and the like.

On my mom's side her dad's side was Basque and he came from France when he was 8. And her mom's side escaped Ukraine right before the commies took over.
 
Homesteader in Nebraska and Colorado. Farmin'. Teachin'.

Kicking ***. Taking names.
 
My mom's father was a painting contractor in Utah before moving to SoCal. One of his bigger jobs was painting the interior of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. He also applied gold leaf to the Angel Moroni on the top of the Temple in SLC. I remember him saying that just as much gold leaf blew away in the wind as actually got applied.
I also remember my grandfather's stories of riding the range when he was a kid, taking care of the cattle during the summer and only seeing Indians while out on the range.
My dad's grandfather was on one of the first wagon trains to make it across the plains to settle the Salt Lake valley. He and his seven brothers and sisters accompanied his widowed mother on the wagon train as his father had died before they left Nauvoo, IL. He worked as a blacksmith. Later in life, he was the model for the Trapper on the "This Is The Place" monument in Salt Lake City - his nephew was the sculptor.
My great-great grandfather was a miller in England before he and wife emigrated to Nauvoo in 1842.
I never met my dad's mother as she died before I was born, but she was born in Scotland and her family ties include Robert Louis Stevenson.
My dad was an engineer for Union Pacific Railroad until his death at the too-young age of 44. His oldest brother was killed (many years before I was ever thought of) during the construction of Hoover Dam in Nevada.

Great thread! I'm going to have to start doing more family research.


 
Blacksmiths and outlaws for the most part until my Grandfather (hence the name Bass)
Sam was also my Dad's name, and he retired from Law enforcement as did his father.
 
My papa worked in the textile mill like most everyone else in the family. His job description/title was "smash hand". Sounds painful huh?
 
RedFish said:
My papa worked in the textile mill like most everyone else in the family. His job description/title was "smash hand". Sounds painful huh?
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Any mention of collecting and brining in the family urine to be used at the textile mill?

I think it was used to bleach the textile
 
My grandfather was a Kendall oil rep, which is where we got our love of cars!! His father was a preacher! My wife is related to William Henry Harrison, so I guess that makes her related to Rick Harrison from the Pawn stars TV show!!

Here's a pic of my grandfather with his girlfriend, another familiar face!!

IMG_2375.JPG
 
When my Grand father immigrated from Portugal in the early 1900's he didn't really have a trade per say. So he wound up Being a Lector in a Ybor City Fl. Cigar factory. Care to guess what a Lector did in a Cigar factory?
 
My dad's father worked at an iron foundry. Don't know much about the rest's occupations except that they were laborers in saw mills.

Mom's side I know more. Her dad worked in the ship yards during ww2. they
wouldn't take him in the service because of flat feet and missing a finger since he was a kid (an axe accident). So this is how he helped the war effort. He late worked on the sign crew for the highway dept. His father was a tug boat captain at the port of Duluth. Grandpa's mom's dad was in the 14th Michigan Infantry
during the civil war.

Mom's mother worked at some department stores. Grandma's mom came over from Norway with her mother and father sisters and brothers.
They farmed. She went to Canada and help out with influenza epidemic.
She had had all he vaccinations when she came to America. That's were
she meet my great grandpa.
They came back to the U.S. He broke horses
for the U.S. cavalry during ww1 and later on he was a chef and taught cooking classes. He had learn to cook working on shops and in logging camps.

Here's a picture of my great grandpa in his uniform.
grandpa jack edit2.jpg
 
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My father's side of the family came here from England before this was a country. They were importer/exporters in the late 1600's. My mother's family came here right after WW2 from Czechoslovakia. They made coo coo clocks.
 
SGBARRACUDA said:
When my Grand father immigrated from Portugal in the early 1900's he didn't really have a trade per say. So he wound up Being a Lector in a Ybor City Fl. Cigar factory. Care to guess what a Lector did in a Cigar factory?
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Read aloud to lessen the workers' boredom?
 
fratzog lover said:
Made cabinets for RCA televisions in the 40's and 50's. Supported 5 kids on 40 to 50 bucks!

View attachment 1715027690
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I used to work there too Jim! So did my father-in-law. Your dad probably worked in building 17. That place is now luxury condos. Did you know that the Victor Talking Machine Company first built that plant? Hence the "RCA Victor" name. Building 17 was supposedly either the first or one of the first factory buildings with a built-in sprinkler system and open outside staircases to ensure employees could be rescued in case of a fire. The US government got GE, AT&T and Westinghouse together and had them found RCA for military purposes. At one time, both biplane parts and rifle parts were manufactured in building 17 during WWI. The "Victor" name was a dig against Alexander Graham Bell, when a Camden machine shop owner was hired by Bell to manufacture the clockwork mechanism for the Grahamaphone. Well the machinist (Johnson) told Bell his design was flawed and wouldn't regulate consistently so it needed a change in design. Bell refused to allow his patented design to be changed, so Johnson refused to make it for him. Johnson went on and patented his revised design and manufactured it to put Bell out of business. Bell was located in Philadelphia and Johnson named his machine "Victor Talking Machine" and put a huge lighted "VICTOR" sign facing Philadelphia to brag back at Bell. Radio broadcasts put Johnson's company out of business around the time of his death. Had he lived longer, he may have been won over by radio. The new RCA company bought the Victor plant at a discount after Johnson's death. Since RCA also now owned Johnson's recording patents, they got into pressing and selling records too. Some really great old recording stars recorded their records right at the Victor plant. Pretty cool history there. I was the manager of plant engineering 25 years ago (when it became GE and later Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin).

I found through ancestry.com that my oldest known relative (great-great grandpa) was an engineer for a printer in England. I expect that meant he was a mechanic.
 
On my Dad's side they were Dry Land Farmers in Nebraska..My Dad ended up being a water well driller which killed him at 38 years of age when he put the derrick to close to the power lines and was electrocuted. My Mom's Family were all Farmers in Missouri and Colorado.
 
goldfish65 said:
Read aloud to lessen the workers' boredom?
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Your right. In 1908 , they didn't even have radio yet. So he was perched high above the cigar workers and rollers. He would read the daily news events, catch everyone up on the local events, sing and even tell stories to entertain employees. All the time in Spanish. I never got to meet him, he died 2 years before I was born. He sent my dad to the store to buy a pack of non filtered Lucky Strike cigarettes and when my Dad returned with them, My Grandfather had died of a heart attack. I still have that unopened pack of 60 year old Lucky Strikes!
 
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