Careers of Yesteryear...And Today!

Last week I took an interesting webinar called Your Ancestor Was…Occupations of our Ancestors by Nancy Waters Lauer through the Florida State Genealogical Society.  I had never heard of many of the occupations the presenter mentioned. Have you ever heard of a brightsmith?  It's a metal worker. How about a bluestocking?  That was a female writer.

I guess this topic was in the back of my mind as I continue to work on my Kinship Determination Project for my Certified Genealogist portfolio this week. 

Guess what century I’m working on based on the “hot” jobs of the individuals I’m writing about:      

•   Blacksmith
•   Wagon Maker
•   Farmer

If you speculated it was the 19^th Century you are correct!

Funny, but I did an Interest Inventory with my students recently and I found many scored high in the areas of Transportation and Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources.  I doubt any of my students will turn out to be blacksmiths or wagon makers but the allure of travel and the interest in food production definitely continues in this century.  The more the world changes the more it stays the same!