More Ancestors at Work: Early 1900s Meat-Cutting Plant
If you've ever read The Jungle (available free on Project Gutenberg), author Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel describing Chicago's meatpacking industry, then you may have tried to imagine what it was like to work in that industry in the early 20th century. Roxanne Munn's photos provide an glimpse into how meat...
Read MoreAncestral Occupational Portraits
Thank you for sending in your photographs of ancestors at work! I've got quite a selection to show you. This is going to be a two-part article. There are too many to show in one blog post. Wendy Negley owns this lovely picture (above) of her great-grandfather Frank Stefani with...
Read MoreAncestral Occupations
Do you know what your ancestors did for work? My paternal grandfather painted houses and so did his father. My maternal grandmother worked in a cotton mill alongside the rest of her family. Their stories were passed down in the family and evidence in documents like city directories and census...
Read MoreOld Family Photos: Fraternal Organizations
Blanch Flanigan owns not one but two images of family in dress that identifies them as members of a fraternal organization. These secret societies were very popular in the 19th century. They offered men brotherhood, work opportunities and a shared mission. Symbolism varied. The three interconnecting rings of the Independent...
Read MoreBackyard Snapshots
Studio portraits are lovely and very formal, but to find signs of everyday life, there's nothing like a snapshot. Ever since George Eastman introduced the amateur camera in the late 1880s, our ancestors have taken informal pictures. Dennis Rodgers sent in this picture of a known relative—his great-uncle...
Read MoreScenes of Moving Day
I've been packing boxes for weeks getting ready to move houses. So how did our ancestors move their belongings in the past? They employed wagons and later, vans similar to the ones companies use today. Sharon Pike sent in this picture of her father-in-law's Greyhound Van Lines Truck that he...
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Answers to our Farming Ancestor Photo
Do you read the comments posted on blogs? Last week I posted Sharon Pike's photo of a wheat harvest and asked if anyone could identify the thresher. We then posted the query on Family Tree Magazine's Facebook page. Thanks to savvy readers, Sharon now knows which...
Read MoreYour Farmer Ancestors: Threshing in South Dakota
There are a lot of comments on my posting on the threshing photos I saw last month at Jamboree. I learned a lot about the threshing process. Thank you! Sharon Pike sent in another picture of threshing wheat. It's of her family in South Dakota. Being...
Read MoreCensus Taking in Pictures
My fingers are itching to start searching through the 1940 census. I've read that the National Archives website crashed due to the number of folks online doing the same thing. I'll wait a bit and try again. In the meantime, take a peek at some census-related...
Read MoreImages of Ancestors at Work
Happy Labor Day! It's a day that honors work so why not take a trip into the past to find pictures of your laboring ancestors. Some of my favorite images on the Library of Congress website are the pictures that show individuals in their...
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