Question of the Week: Is there an occupation that was in your family for generations?

Question

Was there a certain profession or occupation that was in your family for generations?

Tell us about it with an answer below. You can also answer on Facebook or share the question image with friends and family on social media to get them talking. 

Answer 1

yes tobacco spinners and hand weaving linen also ship carpentary and any shipbuilding

Answer 2

yes tobacco spinners and hand weaving linen also ship carpentary and any shipbuilding not from me

Answer 3

It's funny, bc I've found several ancestors on both sides of my family who were blacksmiths. One actually sharing the first name of my son, who.. had taken an interest in blacksmithing,an now is one,even before I had joined Wikitree! DNA is a mysterious substance, isn't it?

Answer 4

My 5th great grandfather Samuel Bass was a large scale planter as were his descendants. My late dad Alton Bass was the 7th generation planter. He and grandad retired in the 1960s. My second great grandfather W.P. Bass also ran a general store as a sideline. So did my great grandfather V. I. and grandfather Lloyd.

Answer 5

Gun making/metal work.  Johnston family from Scotland/Ireland into North Carolina, brothers Gabriel and Gilbert Johnston came from a gun making background, as I understand. One was a colonial governor of North Carolina and the other, the only one with children, came later to this continent, and wrote about his help with the Norton's of North Carolina to supply the Americans in the army.  Gilbert wrote about this revolutionary war service in a letter that resides in the North Carolina Archives, to his daughter in law Susannah Barfield Norton.   The skill was brought forward and my great grandfather James Norton, son of James Russell Norton and Margaret Caroline Johnston, made guns in south Alabama in the 1860s.  His wife, Netta Angeline Gravitt was a gun collector, until she died in 1944.  Their son Louis Cicero Norton became a welder and iron worker who machined iron and steel parts during WWI and then boat propellers in WWII.  His son Robert Louis Norton saw active duty in WWII as a gun specialist.  He once said that he could repair an M1 rifle with his eyes closed.  His granddaughter owns a ladle used for pouring metal into a bullet mold.  Someone in the family purchased (about 2005) a pair of dueling pistols made by Gilbert Johnston.

Answer 6

Yes, Clergymen for 8 generations..

Answer 7

Throughout the 1800's it was mainly Miners, Farmers,and Preachers,it had the occassional Blacksmith. In the 1900's the occupations started to shift toward Carpenters and Textile workers.

Prior to the 1800's Farmers and Miners again, with several Preachers and blacksmith's.

Answer 8

In the 1500s and early 1600s, the Redmans, including John Redman, who came to the Virginia colonies in 1635, were a line of the London Drapers according to records obtained from Drapers' Hall in London.

Answer 9

Farmers are six generations and teachers are five generations. My fifth great grandfather William Heflin 1718-1803, my fourth great grandfather Simon Heflin 1741-1803, my third great grandfather William Heflin 1765-1846, my second great grandfather Lewis Heflin 1796-1879, my great grandfather James Heflin 1832-1910, my grandfather Earl Heflin 1877-1943, my father Francis Heflin 1925-2014, my brother farmed for a while but then switched to mechanic and my son now farms. Teachers that I know for sure started with my second great uncle Patrick Dougherty who was teaching at age 19 in South Dakota. A blizzard came up quickly while he was away from his home. He was lost in the blizzard and froze to death in the 1880’s. His niece was my grandmother Anna Cain Heflin 1889-1985. She and her sister Mary were school teachers at one room school houses, Five of my aunts taught country school too. Hilda Heflin 1912-1979 she also taught at an elementary school later, Marcella Heflin 1916-2000, Anna Helen Heflin 1919-2019, Mary Heflin 1923-2005, Rita Heflin 1927-2020, my sister and several first cousins are teachers, I have several second cousins that are teachers and my daughter home schools her kids

Answer 10

My father’s family were farmers.

Answer 11

Yes! My Meldrum ancestors were weavers in Dunfermline, Scotland for many generations. In the museum there you can see the seamless shirt woven by Henry Meldrum (c1764-1828), my 3-greats-grandfather. A hand-crafted Meldrum loom from 1835 is also in the Dunfermline museum. My grandfather, Henry Montrose Meldrum (1822-1901) operated a small loom (among other occupations) even after he emigrated to Canada.

Answer 12

My father's surname family were millers of grain in Moos, now Mooslargue, Haut-Rhin, France for many generations. Many Dangel like mine moved to nearby towns with mills, and none were named Miller, just Dangel that I have met many lines of from the area.

Interesting, my father's mother's family, came from Slovenia when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The one who came to America, his mother's family were millers of grain, also. The interesting thing about their floating mill on the river Drava, was that it was passed on for many generations through the female line so that the family living at the same address, the surnames kept changing till it became just Tement, where I still have cousins living.

I note many people have said farmers, so yes, my family had generations of farmers and often millers also were farmers at the same time.

Answer 13

Yes, several:
Attorneys - 4 generations on maternal grandfather's side
Silversmiths - 3 generations on paternal grandmother's side
Merchants - 3 generations on paternal grandmother's side
Tanners - 3 generations on paternal grandfather's side

Other than the attorneys, most of these professions disappeared from our families with the advent of the 20th Century.

Answer 14

Preachers and Farmers! Most all preachers were Methodist from my Mother’s side. Some were circuit riding preachers. Farmers are on both sides. I have a few plantation owners way up the line, and 2 that sold their land to make the Smoky Mtn. National Park!

Georgann Hill Hickman

Answer 15

On my side at least  5 generations of "engineers" :  GGF, GF , F, 2 uncles, me, my son , initially Taff Vale railway engineers (100 years) , then electronics (comms and IT, 100 years) and now materials science (ceramics and nanotechnology). The rest - farmers, shop- and inn-keepers - at least 300 years of ancestors good English yeomen AgLabs (and women) of whom some emigrated and some were non-conformist ministers , and a few did both.  Of course many others were occasional participants in military, political or entertainment occupations but these were exceptions.

Answer 16

My great-great-great grandfather worked as a printer in Edinburgh with the publisher Hunter & Blair. After emigrating to Canada he continued printing, and his son - my great-great-grandfather - relocated to London, Ontario where he started the Canadian Free Press newspaper. After some struggles he sold it, and he moved to a smaller community and started the Glencoe Transcript newspaper. His sons (not my great-grandfather) continued the paper for at least another generation. Fast forward to the early 1990s and I was working at the pioneer village in London - at a replica print shop - telling visitors all about my great-great-grandfather and showing them how a printing press worked!

Answer 17

Maybe I am a bit late with my answer, but I have one occupation that crops up again & again on my paternal side & that is that of tailor.  Ladies or gents, the Hermann occupation was passed down from father to son for  several generations. On the maternal side it was boat construction.  The Beechings were famous for lifeboats & similar vessels.  The census records were full of occupations relating to boat building & seafaring jobs. My mother's family lived in Norfolk, mainly in Yarmouth, which led to many of my ancestors having the sea in their blood.

Answer 18

Yes, and it is very recent.

My grandfather Walter Kriefall (1902 - 1967) was employed as a US Postal Clerk in Milwaukee, WI

My father Richard Kriefall (1932 - 1997) was employed as a US Postal Clerk in Milwaukee, WI

My sister Karen (Kriefall) Karbowski (1960 - still living) was employed as a US Postal Clerk in Waukesha, WI

My son Michael Kriefall (1992 - still living) is employed as a carrier for the US Postal Service in Brookfield, WI

My family has been employed by the US Postal Service since the Great Depression.

Tom Kriefall

Franklin, WI

Answer 19

Farmers, Shoemakers, Tailors, Saddlers, & Tinkers, in Italy.  In the US they worked as shoemakers, tailors, Clothing Manufacturers, Railroad Shop painters, educators, musicians and artists.

Answer 20

Welsh coal miners during the 1800s until one converted to LDS and migrated to Zion (Utah) where he farmed.

Comments

Hi, Jo,

Probably find my "lot" moved the coal dug out by your lot if they worked the Taff/Rhondda Valley pits.  Lots of good info in the Porth Museum and National Library of Wales collections.

Also strong LDS connections via the Humphreys family.

Phil P..

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My lot were Ebbw Vale Company between two mountains: Cwncarne in the east and Mynyddlesllyn in the west.  Somebdy needs to buy a vowel.

Mitt Romney delivered my grandfather's eulogy.