Whether your colonial ancestors arrived at Jamestown, on the Mayflower, or came over a century later, you probably hope to trace your family back to England. In this online lecture, Senior Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will highlight key records and resources available to help you in your search—including published genealogies, compilations, indexes, websites, and more. Learn More
Take Advantage of Our Spring Sale—$25 Off New American Ancestors Memberships!
Join American Ancestors today and save $25 on your membership cost. An American Ancestors membership offers access to billions of searchable names on our website, a subscription to American Ancestors magazine, discounts on books and research for hire, and more! Use code Apr25 at checkout.
From poisoned husbands to sausage factory decapitations, shocking headlines can scratch a gossipy itch. But they can also inspire rigorous research, inviting us to examine the less-traveled corners of history and overlooked record repositories. Read More
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
This Week's Survey:
Connections to the Revolutionary War and the Battles of Lexington and Concord
Share your thoughts about the survey! Please limit submissions to 150 words or fewer. Your submission may be featured in an upcoming newsletter or shared on social media; please note in your email if you do not want your story to be shared. Published responses may be edited for clarity and length.
Ancestors Who Worked in an Industry or Trade That No Longer Exists
Total: 2,818 Responses
57%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors had a job in an industry or trade that no longer exists.
25%, No, I am not aware of any of my ancestors working in an industry or trade that no longer exists.
18%, I’m not sure.
Readers Respond
Kathleen Oberley, Iowa City, Iowa: My father, Robert Coyne, was a letter-press printer in Janesville, Wisconsin. As a child, my job was to put each letter back in its respective section in the correct drawer of type. The letter was notched, indicating the font and point size. As I got older, I learned to set type by placing the letters, one by one, in a holder called a stick. I became adept at the printing process and used the proof press to make covers for some of my school projects—always a hit with my teachers!
Meredith Hargreaves, Tuxedo Park, New York: My great-great-great-grandfather Charles H. Smith (1825–1900) was the lighthouse keeper at Chatham Light in Massachusetts from 1862 to 1872. He was responsible for keeping the lamps fueled with lard oil. Today, Chatham Light is automated, and the station is manned by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Richard Josselyn, Andover, Massachusetts: My grandfather Florus Coolidge Josselyn worked at the Commonwealth Shoe Co. in Whitman, Massachusetts. The 1920 US census shows his occupation as a "vamper," a highly paid, skilled position. The vamp is the top portion of the shoe that stretches from the toe to the back. The vamper expertly stitched together the upper parts of the shoe, including the vamp and tongue, to form the completed "upper," which was then stitched to the sole and heel.
Norman K. Scarpulla, Andover, Massachusetts: My great-great-great-grandfather William H. Sayre was a toll collector on the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, from 1828 to 1862. He managed the weigh lock—a separate canal lock that weighed coal boats. The boat entered the lock, the water was drained, and the boat settled onto a mechanical scale. The toll was based on the weight of the coal.
Philip O'Brien, Princeton, Massachusetts: The Washington, DC, 1850 census lists my Irish-born great-great-grandfather Thomas Lambert’s occupation as a “tinner.” He sold milk pails, sink basins, cooking pots, and pie pans. By 1863, Thomas was calling himself a tinsmith and operating a successful retail store on Pennsylvania Avenue that offered a variety of metal goods.
What We’re Reading
America’s 250th Anniversary Smithsonian magazine presents a collection of articles that highlight the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain.
Constitution of the Portsmouth Encyclopedia Society, ca. 1803 This American Antiquarian Society blog post highlights an unusual private circulating library. “An entire society was set up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to circulate just one publication: Dobson’s multi-volume Encyclopaedia.”
Spotlight: Vital Records, Provincial Archives of Alberta
by Valerie Beaudrault
Alberta is one of the prairie provinces in western Canada. Its capital is Edmonton. The holdings of the Provincial Archives of Alberta comprise hundreds of thousands of vital statistic records. Index pages from the vital records volumes have been digitized and uploaded to the website. The alphabetical birth registrations index covers 1870 to 1950. The marriage registration indexes include separate brides and grooms indexes (1870-1050) and an index to indigenous marriages (1923 to 1945). The death registrations indexes cover 1870 to 1975, plus indexes to indigenous deaths (1923 to 1945) and overseas deaths (1940 to 1948). There is also an index to stillbirth registrations from 1914 to 1949. Search Now
Celebrating 180 Years of American Ancestors—Valuable Records
In 1855, one of our founders, William H. Montague, was working as a debenture clerk at the Boston Custom House. One morning he arrived at his office just as the janitor was kindling the fire with a stack of paper. Curious, Montague asked to see the sheets and was surprised to discover that they were the returns of the U.S. Direct Tax of 1798 for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Maine (which at that time included Maine).
These records contained key information, including an inventory of all the buildings and lands in Massachusetts and Maine, with their valuations, the names of every owner and occupant, and the individual tax assessed for each. The janitor pointed out a large pile of these historical documents in a corner of the office.
Montague rescued them from destruction and deposited them in our library. These valuable records were bound into over 20 thick folio volumes and are now accessible as a searchable database on our website.
As a family historian, you know that wills are important in your research—but have you created a will for yourself? Free Will, an easy and free online will creation tool, will guide you step-by-step through identifying beneficiaries for your assets, supporting the causes that are important to you, and planning for the preservation of your research. Learn More
