Friday, May 31, 2013

Employed in Ocean Navigation


Employed in 1840

Because I am researching some of my family through cluster genealogy, I am learning to notice some things that I have previously overlooked. Take a look at this section of the form that Ancestry.com provides for census transcription under "number of persons in each family employed in..."

With so many of my ancestors involved in farming, I think I would have overlooked this employment section if it wasn't for Lori Thornton's talk this past April at NERGC about agricultural records. It made me think about those men who were NOT farmers that were in neighborhoods in towns where my coastal RI and CT families lived.

Kathy Hinckley's book titled, Your Guide to the Federal Census, which you may have to look at your public library to find a copy to read, has been part of my personal collection for a long time. 

I read the copy that my local library had on the shelf and decided that I knew NOTHING about the census at all despite having read about it in many genealogy articles and books.

Now, I have new ideas about my Sea Captains...





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Midge, I learned something new today by reading your wonderful post. Looking forward to your Sea Capt. series.