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Have you found information about the jobs your ancestors might have held? We guide you through this in the article.
When you start genealogy, you first think about collecting names, dates, and places. But to bring your family history to life, nothing is more telling than discovering the jobs our ancestors held.
Were they farmers, weavers, teachers, sailors, notaries, shoemakers, or servants? Behind every job lies a daily life, a social status, and sometimes a family story passed down from generation to generation.
In this guide, discover how to find your ancestors' jobs, understand them, and enrich your family tree.
A genealogist’s luck is that the profession often appears in archival documents. Here are the essential sources:
📋 These documents are available online in the departmental archives (up to 75 years back).
Conducted every 5 years in the 19th and 20th centuries, the census records indicate the job of each household member.
The military service records (19th and 20th centuries) contain a wealth of information: physical description, military career… and they can also indicate the civilian job.
The marriage contracts, inventories after death or tax rolls often mention the head of household's job.
Finding your ancestors' jobs is ideal to understand their living conditions, financial status, and education level.
Additionally, it's interesting to learn more about their occupations to understand their place in society and their social circle.
Did you know that many of our ancestors had multiple jobs at the same time? Indeed, since it is said that 80% of the French population at the end of the Ancien Régime were peasants, it was important for them to adapt their activities according to the seasons.
Finding a job isn't always enough: you also need to interpret what it meant at the time.
Some terms have disappeared (blacksmith, cooper, innkeeper…).
Other jobs have changed meaning (day laborer meant a worker paid by the day).
Some titles could reflect a social status more than a real job (like owner or rentier).
📋 Online dictionaries (for example the Dictionary of old jobs) help better understand these terms.
There are several online resources to help us learn more about their jobs. This way, you can discover job titles that may have evolved over time and regions, as well as unusual and obsolete jobs from the past :
• Old Jobs : the reference database for past jobs
• Picturesque France : many old jobs explained
• The list of old jobs on Wikipedia : to enrich your knowledge
• Old jobs on GeneaWiki : wikis useful for genealogy
• Our ancestors' jobs on the French Genealogy Review
• SNCF archives : to learn more about our railway ancestors
• The genealogical database of the Musée du Compagnonnage de Tours : to find information about ancestors who were “masters” or “companions”
• The archives of the Historical Service of the Defense : for our military ancestors
• The retrospective directory of the magistracy : for magistrate ancestors
• The Mémoire Nomade page : to find ancestors who were peddlers, beggars, gypsies, fairground workers…
• The database of 19th-century French patents : to find information about inventor ancestors
• The Union of Corporate Genealogy Circles
Finding your ancestors' jobs is more than just an administrative task: it's a way to understand their daily lives, their efforts, and their place in society.
So, ready to discover if your ancestors were weavers, teachers, sailors, or merchants? Start your research and bring their stories to life!
🌳 Trace your ancestors and their jobs by signing up for free on Geneafinder