WORKDAY WEDNESDAY ~ Which of my ancestors were employed by a Railroad?

I know I have run across employment with railroads, several times in my research.  I hope I have recorded all of them, but I doubt that I have.  However, working with my Legacy database, let’s see how many “railroad” occupations I have recorded.

According to my Search there are 14 individuals in my database, who have an Occupation associated with the Railroad.  To find this I used the Search>Find tab in Legacy and entered my parameters.  I eliminated 3 of them in the list.  Two are not a confirmed ancestors and one is somehow on this list although I find no reference to a railroad occupation. I'm curious about the one with nothing listed as "railroad" and need to look more closely as to why Legacy added him. I doubt the program is wrong, so what did I miss? 

SCREENSHOT OF THE RESULTS OF MY SEARCH

Looking at the exact description of the occupations, we have Brakeman, Railroad Agent/Telegraph Operator, Bookkeeper, Baggage Handler, Interlocker, Sashman, Cabman, Switchman, Conductor, & Snowman (to learn more about a Snowman, see this blog post WORKDAY WEDNESDAY ~ What is a Snowman?

So many different jobs available.  Some were quite dangerous and others were not.  Some of the men stayed with the Railroad and other moved on to other jobs.

Most of the occupation titles are self-explanatory. But what is an Interlocker and a Sashman?

Interlocker - On operator who would manually set the signal(s) to the appropriate reading (proceed, stop, caution, etc.).  It was a demanding job requiring constant vigilance.

Sashman – I tried learning the definition of this occupation when I wrote a previous post about one of the ancestors listed here, and could not locate it.  I searched again today and was unable to find a definition. If any of you can shed light on it, please let me know. 

I have tried, in the past, to find employment records from railroad companies, but have not been successful.  If you have any tips on that I’d love to hear them.  I’ve been told the records don’t go back very far and I need records from mid to late 1800s and early 1900s.

Here is a list of the men in mine and my husband’s family who were associated with the railroad.

BOWDEN, Robert L. – my maternal great grandfather

CLARK, Henry B. – my maternal 3^rd cousin 3x removed

DAVIS, Thomas – husband of my paternal 2^nd cousin twice removed

FITZCHARLES, George B. – my paternal 1^st cousin twice removed

HALL, Charles S. – my husband’s paternal grandfather

HALL, Thomas C. – my husband’s paternal great grandfather

HART, Elijah E. – my paternal half 1^st cousin 3x removed

HART, Henry A. - my paternal half 1^st cousin 3x removed

SOUTHWELL, Samuel – Husband of my paternal half 2^nd cousin twice removed

THORNTON, Andrew R. – my maternal 1^st cousin twice removed

THORNTON, John Jr. – my maternal 1^st cousin twice removed

Did you have any Railroad employees in your family?  I’d love to hear about them in comments or your own blog post. 

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

WORKDAY WEDNESDAY–What kind of work did your ancestors do?

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Henry A. Hart Killed By A Train–His story

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2023   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

WORKDAY WEDNESDAY ~ What is a Snowman?

As we research our ancestors we learn a lot about the times they lived in and the things they did for a living.  I always find it incredibly interesting when I see an occupation that I’ve not heard of before.

In this case, it was for Henry Bryan Clark, my maternal 3rd cousin 3 times removed.  I was doing a bit of collateral research when I ran across an employment record for Henry.  Upon further review it was actually a Social Security Application handled by the railroad.

Henry’s occupation is listed as “Snowman" for the Chicago and North Western RR [railroad] Co.  I accessed this record here U.S., Chicago and North Western Railroad Employment Records, 1935-1970

These employment cards give valuable genealogical information.  Information similar to that found on an SS-5 (social security application form)

In this case it give the following:

• His full name – Henry Bryan Clark
• Current address – Daws Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
• Date and place of birth – 14 Jul 1888 in Omaha, Nebraska
• Names of his parents, including his mother’s maiden name – James Arthur Clark & Kate Everett
• His social security number – 353-05-7913
• His previous employment – working for his father
• Place of employment prior to this – South Water St., Chicago, Illinois
• His occupation title – Snowman
• Hire date – Mar 1948
• Signature – he signed the card

That’s a whole lot of great information. 

My biggest question is What is a Snowman?  What does that person do?

The obvious thing that comes to mind is that they are responsible for removing snow from the railroad tracks.  But, I didn’t want to just guess.  I began Googling my question.  I looked at lists of “old” occupations, railroad specific occupations and many other general inquiries.  I found nothing to tell me about this specific job title. 

My next idea was to contact my very good friend in Amarillo, Texas.  He worked for the railroad for over 30 years, as did his father and grandfather.  Will he be able to answer my question?

Upon talking with my railroad friend, Steve, he believes this was probably someone who operated the snow plows that cleared the tracks. He had never specifically heard the term “snowman,” but had heard terms like Switch Tender, for those that did this job.  If anyone else had heard this term or had more information, please get in touch. 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2021   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

WORKDAY WEDNESDAY ~ Can I do a better job listing occupations in my database?

Here’s the question I asked my self today.  How many people in my Legacy database have occupations associated with their data?  

Recording occupations should be one of the easiest things we do?  Right?

I mean, we review and record all those census records, most of which contain occupations.  We have death records, obituaries, probate and marriage records which can contain occupations.

The question is…..do we record them?

Why is this important?  What can we gain from knowing an ancestors occupation?

• It gives us an insight as to what their financial circumstances might have been.
• We can use it to gauge whether the John Gould listed in the 1880 census as a Carpenter, could also be the John Gould listed as a Bank Clerk or Lawyer in the 1900 census.  Would the occupation have changed that much?
• We can use it to determine an identity based on others with the same profession, in the same area.  I found one of my husband’s family members this way.  He was a glass blower, which isn’t a common profession.
• Perhaps the occupation would mean our ancestor belonged to an organization associated with the profession.  In that case, would there be publications I could find him/her in?
• Is this a family profession?  Did the parent or do the children have the same occupation?
• Did the occupation mean the ancestor and family would be moving around a lot.  Such is the case with itinerant preachers, railroad employees, farmers and others.
• Was the occupation dangerous?  I’ve had ancestors who died at work.

These are just some of the reasons I believe it’s important to record the occupation of our ancestors.
 
I wanted to see how well I’ve done so I ran a report with Legacy 8 using the search feature.

I not only list occupations as I find them on various census & other records, but also have a separate entry for “occupation at time of death.”  I searched with both criteria.

Here is my search screen.



The resulting list told me that I have 187 individuals with occupation or occupation at time of death, associated with them.

Let’s run the numbers.

- My Legacy 8 database contains 4869 individuals
- That means that I only have occupations recorded for about 2.6% of those individuals.
- Now let’s take a look at how many of the 4869 in my database are males.

Taking into account that until World War II, most women did not work outside the home. 

I have 2548 males.  This means my percentage is a bit better and goes up to 13.6%.

Can I improve these numbers?  Absolutely!

Will doing so provide more information and leads in my research?  Yes.

Should I record every occupation from each census and other record separately?  I’m not certain on this one.  Perhaps only record another occupation if it is different from the one I have?

What do you do?  How do you record occupations?  Do you record them?

What discoveries have you made by following someone’s occupation?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Legacy 8 Search Function - What Can You Find?  I used "Occupation" as an example

Occupation Files on Ancestry - 1600-1995 - Have you seen these?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION