Sunday 29 May 2016

Serendipity Sunday - Descriptions of Occuptions




In 1918 the United States Bureau of Labor put out a few publications describing occupations, what qualifications or schooling it took to get that job and in some a list of "kindred" or related occupations. The following are definitions for occupations to do with woolen and worsted goods.





Each booklet gives a list of "code words" for that occupation near the beginning. On this page for the Street Railway you will see the directions for using the code words.









Relevant Links





















13 comments:

  1. I need to check this out. I have several ancestors who worked on streetcars.

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    1. Me too! Trains and streetcars. And on both sides of the family in the paint and varnish industry.

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  2. Fascinating resource. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I have actually been writing about some family members in the R.I. area and many were in the textile field...its so fascinating to research these early beginnings ~ Sharon

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    1. I too like to see what their jobs entailed.

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  4. One of my ancestors was a 'carder' and it took me a long time to figure out that was a 'stripper of cards' and just what that meant. This is a great resource! Thanks for pointing it out!

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  5. An interesting resource. I lived 40 years in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, a centre for tweed and knitwear production, and you would see job adverts for “body linkers”, “piecers” and “collar binders”.

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    1. There were sure some weird names for some jobs in those days!

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  6. Thanks for sharing! I'm currently writing a post about my ancestor who was a tinsmith-- and I was able to use the Metal Working Description of Occupations to get a better idea of his job! I think I will include it in my post. :)

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    1. Sounds interesting, I'd love to read it. Glad to be of help!

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  7. Thanks for sharing these interesting resources. I didn't look at all of them so I'll ask, do you know if they were all written in the 1910s? In the cases of some ancestors it would make a difference.

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