How Did Your Ancestor Earn a Living? Using a Digital Collection May Enhance Your Research

 

What did your 20th century ancestor do for a living?

As we research our family tree, we get glimpses of our ancestors’ occupations through the US census, city directories, and death certificates. Telling their life stories should include more than a job title. Ideally, it needs to include descriptions of what that job entailed, what tools were used, what a work week consisted of, and what that job “looked” like? This “historical context” allows us to tell a story using items that may not necessarily mention our ancestors by name but is relevant to our research.

Resources for researching occupations can include employment records, when available, but they also include archival collections, newspapers, and home sources. One easy way to start is to look at digital collections available through libraires, archives, and museums.

The Railroad: An Example

The men in my paternal line, worked for railroad companies in Massachusetts, Texas, and California. If I wanted to start my research on the rail industry, I would need to ask a question and narrow my focus as I begin with the last generation and move backwards in time.

Let’s say I want to start with my grandfather who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in Southern California. My research question might be “what digitized items exist for the Southern Pacific Railroad?” To tell a story fully, I need historical context and a better understanding of the railroad and what it was like to work for the railroad. Initially, I might look for sources like images, newspapers, documents; information about specific railroad jobs; and “material culture items,” tools and artifacts such as track gauges, switch brooms, metal whistles, etc. While searching by name is necessary for genealogy websites, you’ll want to expand to keyword phrases that describe the occupation or location when you research library, archive, and museum websites.

I’m going to start my search on a website that is a large, collaborative digital collection, Digital Public Library of America. Because this is a collaborative website, digitized items are held by institutions across the United States, expanding the relevant materials I might find.

To begin I’m going to search using the keywords “Southern Pacific” and see what results I find. However, keep in mind I could use other terms as well including “Railroad” “California Railroad” “Railroad Engineer.”

A search on the keyword phrase “Southern Pacific” returned over 19,000 hits. To narrow this list down, I’ll use the website tools to the left of the results and select “images” and also restrict the results by date to between 1940 and 1980, the decades my grandfather worked for the railroad.

Those changes focused my search down to over 1,800 images, a number that is more manageable. I could narrow that search even more but for now, I’m going to work with what I have.

I’m noticing that there are quite a few images from Sacramento. My grandfather worked in Southern California, but the images from Sacramento and other locations might provide some historical context such as what railroad workers wore and what the trains looked like at a certain time.

As I continue my research, I can change my results, so they include text, or even a physical object. This will help me as I gather digitized items to tell the story of my grandfather’s work.

The option “How Can I Use It?” can further refine the scope of the search to fit specific usage permissions. This is useful when I’m considering publishing what I find online or in a book. Items that do not have a “fair use” clause can still be used with permission from the participating repository.

What Did Your Ancestor Do?

Adding historical context through digital collections can be useful even when you are unable to find employment records or personal information about your ancestor’s occupation. For example, my maternal grandmother worked for an airplane factory during World War II, but so far I haven’t found any photographs or documents of her employment. Nonetheless, finding images of women doing “Rosie the Riveter” work can help to illustrate her story.

Part of family history research entails finding materials that provide historical context for our ancestors’ lives. The ways in which your ancestors earned their living defined a significant part of their lives.  Researching their occupations— through images, material culture, and documents—helps you to fill in this essential piece of their story in an engaging way that will interest your family. Continued research could include a specific repository with materials from the location your ancestor worked, or writing to that company (if they still exist) and asking about records of your ancestor’s employment. Who knows, you may hit gold like a friend who found a PDF of the final newsletter, The Seaweed Gazette, published January 15, 1946, by M.S. John Ericcson, a US hospital ship and converted Swedish luxury cruise ship, on which her father served as a First Sergeant in the US Army Medical Corps during World War II.

--Gena Philibert-Ortega

Accessing a Member Benefit: NewspaperArchive

 

The National Genealogical Society offers its paid individual members many benefits. One favorite is the free subscription to NewspaperArchive. If you haven’t yet searched its database, you are in for a treat. Its extensive, easy-to-use collection will undoubtedly make it one of your favorite benefits.

What is NewspaperArchive?

NewspaperArchive is an online, historical newspaper database. A yearly subscription normally costs $95 and change. As an NGS member, you have free access to its entire database with 280+ million pages of digitized newspaper content from over 15,500 different publication titles from the United States and many other countries around the world. Newspapers span 1736 to present day.

How Do You Access This Member Benefit?

First, go to the NGS website and log into your account. You’ll know you are logged in because you’ll see the Welcome [your name] message at the top right. Now, click on Member Benefits at the top toolbar and select Individual Member Benefits. You’ll find NewspaperArchive listed on the drop-down menu.

Click on NewspaperArchive. This will take you to the NewspaperArchive web page on the NGS website. From this web page, click on the blue Access NewspaperArchive button.

Clicking on the blue button brings you to the NewspaperArchive website homepage. You can start your search on this page. Please note: ignore the user log-in at the top right of the page, you are already logged in via your NGS account.

From the homepage you can do a basic search by name, keyword, or newspaper titles. If you need more options for searching, click on the Advanced Search link at the bottom of the search box. The Advanced Search enhances your search by allowing you to search by name, location, keywords, publication, and date. Once you conduct a basic search, such as on a name, you will have the opportunity to narrow your search on your results page by country or US state and city and by date range.

Your search results list will include the number of results, thumbnails images of the results, and ways to narrow your results on the right-hand side of the page. 

Click on one of your results and you will be taken to the newspaper page. At the top, you’ll see the publication name and date, page numbers, and the Find on Page function. Fill in a name or keyword and it will be highlighted on the newspaper page. At the top right, you can choose to download the image of that newspaper page, save it to your computer or print it. At the top left you can choose to brighten or add contrast to the newspaper page or zoom in or out.

Start Using NewspaperArchive Today

If you haven’t tried searching for your ancestors on NewspaperArchive, give it a try. You may discover a long lost relative or uncover a story about a great grandfather. And, if you have used it in the past, be sure to check back in. NewspaperArchive is consistently adding new content. To learn more about searching NewspaperArchive, see the NGS video by Mary Roddy, Finding Treasures in NewspaperArchive: How an NGSQ Editor Mines this New Member Benefit. 

Enjoy one of the best free member benefits from NGS!

 

Call for Proposals is Open for the NGS 2027 Family History Conference

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) invites innovative proposals for its 2027 Family History Conference scheduled for 19–22 May in Madison, Wisconsin. Proposals are accepted for (a) main conference sessions, (b) pre-conference workshops, and (c) FOCUS on Genealogy Organizations (FOCUS) sessions.*

The conference theme, Lakesides & Legacies, encourages a broad look at the places, records, communities, and stories that shaped our ancestors’ lives and the legacies they left behind—and how genealogists and family historians can discover the past and preserve it for the future.

Get all the details on proposal requirements, session format options, and more on the conference website. Submit by 15 September 2026 or share this with someone who may be interested.

*FOCUS on Genealogy Organizations is an annual pre-conference event that brings together genealogy society and library leaders, volunteers, board members, and more.

World Cup, Citizenship, and the Genealogy of Belonging

By Andre Kearns

This summer, from June 11 to July 19, the world is gathering around the beautiful game. The 2026 FIFA World Cup has brought soccer’s biggest stage to North America, and like millions of families, mine is fully caught up in the joy and excitement.

In our house, the rooting interests are wonderfully complicated.

The author and his wife at the Haiti–Brazil FIFA World Cup match in Philadelphia. Their family embodies two of the many pathways that shape the American story—US-born and Haitian-born. 

I was born in the United States with deep roots here, so Team USA has my heart. My wife was born in Haiti, and this year Haiti is back on the World Cup stage for the first time in 52 years. That means our children are cheering for both countries, because both countries are part of who they are.

That is what I love about this World Cup. It is not only a celebration of sport. It is a celebration of origin, migration, belonging, diversity, and identity.

The US men’s national team tells that story beautifully. Some players were born in the United States to families with deep American roots. Others are children of immigrants. Some were born abroad to American parents, including military families stationed overseas. Others are birthright citizens, born on US soil to parents from other countries. The Guardian recently described this mix as one of the team’s strengths—a “magnificent mess” of American pathways.

The 2026 US Men's National Team reflects the many pathways that shape the American story. Born in the United States and abroad, with roots spanning the globe, the team demonstrates that citizenship, identity, and belonging are often woven from many family histories. 

For genealogists, each pathway requires a different research strategy.

For a player born in the United States to US-born parents, we might begin with familiar records: birth certificates, census records, city directories, school records, military records, newspapers, and oral history.

For someone with recent immigrant roots, the trail may quickly lead to passenger lists, naturalization records, alien registration files, consular records, foreign civil registration, church registers, and records in another language.

For the child of a US military family born abroad, we may need overseas birth records, military service records, base records, passports, State Department documentation, and records created in both the United States and the country where the family was stationed.

For birthright citizens, the key record may be a US birth certificate, but that is only the beginning. To understand the family story, we must then follow the parents’ origins, migrations, languages, communities, and records across borders.

That is the joy and challenge of family history. Citizenship may be recorded in one document. Identity is rarely that simple.

In my own family, the World Cup has become a living genealogy lesson. It reminds us that our children do not have to choose between their American and Haitian roots. They inherit both. They can cheer for both. They belong to both stories.

So enjoy the World Cup. Celebrate the goals, the flags, the anthems, and the drama. But also pay attention to the deeper story on the field.

Every player has a pathway. Every family has an origin story. And every one of those stories is worth discovering, preserving, and cheering for.

References:

Schaerlaeckens, Leander. “From Military Brats to Birthright Citizens: How USMNT’s Diverse Pathways Reflect America.” The Guardian, June 24, 2026. 

Reflections from Hamilton (the Musical)

by Sunny Jane Morton and Kimberly Powell, AG

Before many of us saw Lin Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary musical Hamilton, we heard it. From our child singing every word in their room upstairs. Or from a friend insisting, “No, really, you have to listen to this.” From one song in the car turning into three, then five.

Once we’re singing along, the story pulls us in. But when we stop singing and start pondering, we realize that Hamilton gives us so much to think about as genealogists. Where do we begin when retelling our own ancestral stories? Whose versions do we trust? What if no one wrote them down? How do we write about people who were brilliant, broken, ambitious, loving, selfish, brave, and deeply flawed? Or the (apparently) humdrums or unknowns?

Hamilton’s masterful storytelling helps us see that history—Alexander Hamilton’s and ours—is not just what happened. History is what survived, what was remembered, what was written down, what was destroyed, and what someone later chose to tell.

Which brings us to the first choice every storyteller has to make.

We have to decide what story we’re telling.

How could a destitute orphan from the Caribbean become a founding father of the United States? A perplexed Aaron Burr asks this question in the opening line of the show. The odds were absolutely against such an outcome for Alexander, yet this is what happened.

The opening scene—a fast-forwarded version of Alexander’s life up to his arrival in New York City as a young man—could have been an entire Act I. His father was a Scotsman in the Caribbean—how did he get there? His mother was a prostitute—how did that come about? How did they meet? His father’s abandonment, his mother’s fatal illness, Alexander’s way out through writing…all of it is worthy of storytelling.

Yet in the musical, Alexander’s childhood is compressed into one scene. That may be in part because so much less is known of his early years. But mostly, it’s because the story Lin Manuel Miranda wants to tell is about Alexander becoming a founding father—and there’s only so much room in every story.

We weren’t in the room when things happened.

At a crucial point in the story, Hamilton meets for a private dinner with his rivals, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Historical accounts conflict about what happened. As the storyteller, Lin Manuel Miranda had to choose which version of the story to portray. He chose to admit he wasn’t sure what to believe. He even embraced the mystery by having the cast sing about what each party said happened in the song “The Room Where It Happened.” 

Our ancestors have little control over how they are remembered.

When General George Washington sings, “History Has Its Eyes on You,” he expresses his awareness that all the world is watching him—not just now, but future generations—and that he won’t get to choose how he is portrayed in the future. But he knows he is making history, and he warns Alexander Hamilton of the same.

Alexander’s wife Eliza is just as conscious that she is on a historical stage, and she tries to exercise some control. When she learns that Alexander not only was unfaithful to her but declared it publicly, she tears up his letters to her. She had fallen in love with him through his gift of writing, and she wants to erase the evidence of it—not just from her own life, but from the historical record. She wants to keep as much of her heartbreak from the world—including future generations—as possible.   

Those who came before us were real humans, with real feelings.

When Alexander and his nemesis, Aaron Burr, both become fathers for the first time, they are caught off guard by fierce new depths of parental wonder, protectiveness, and pride. In “Dear Theodosia,” they sing to their newborn children. The men are mired in the violent birth of a new nation, yet for a few minutes they are simply fathers, looking at their children and imagining the future. They pledge to make the world better for them, as parents do, even when so much is beyond their control.

Despite Alexander’s intentions, his choices lead to the fracturing of his marriage and the death of their son. The heartbreaking song “It’s Quiet Uptown” captures the time afterward for Alexander and Eliza. Shared grief gives the estranged couple a horrible, but possible, starting place for reconciliation. “Unimaginable:” the word repeats in a hushed, sympathetic chorus. There’s no glossing over how hard this must have been. 

Who tells the story changes what we hear. 

The final song of Hamilton, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” asks a question larger than just Alexander’s life: who gets the microphone and who doesn’t?

Who told our family’s stories before we arrived? A county historian? A newspaper editor? A courthouse clerk? A descendant with something to protect, prove, or hide? Someone with the power to be believed? Someone inside or outside the family? Sympathetic, indifferent, or hostile?

And who appears in the records only when someone else needed to count, tax, sell, sue, employ, punish, or control them?

One of the bold choices in Hamilton is that actors who do not look like the founding fathers tell their story. People of color (including women) are cast as the storytellers, and their own perspectives are included. 

Who tells the story does not change what happened. But it changes how we hear the story—and what survives in the telling.

Preserving our family’s story is a choice.

At the end of Hamilton, Eliza gathers what she can. She interviews soldiers. She preserves Alexander’s writings (except those she destroyed, of course). She tells his story. And, in doing so, she leaves pieces of her own.

Most of our ancestors left us only fragments, not the reams of papers Alexander left behind. They left a signature. A mark. A tax entry. A name in a will. A silence where a letter might have been.

The stories we tell now from the fragmented past will always be imperfect. Some pieces are missing. Some are uncomfortable. Some voices are loud with power in the records—and some are absent.

Maybe that is Hamilton’s reminder for genealogists. History is not only made by the famous, the powerful, or the people who expected to be remembered. It is also made by people whose quiet lives appear in scattered remnants, waiting in the records until someone asks better questions—or looks closer at the gaps and works harder to fill them.

What will survive because we cared enough to ask—and act?

Latest Issue of NGS Magazine Is Now Online

 

The July–September 2026 issue of NGS Magazine, Volume 52, No. 3, is being printed and is now available digitally in the Members Only section of the website. This issue continues the year-long theme of America250, with a spotlight on the 1900s.

Note to longtime members and newer members who elected to purchase the print version of NGS Magazine: Delivery of print copies depends upon USPS schedules.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Features

1910 Census Entries: Fraud and Supplements

Michelle Chiachiere, CG

Finding Immigrants in US Records: A Layered Approach

Shayna Muckerheide, MLIS

 

When Relatives Disappeared: Mexican “Repatriation”

Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS

 

Researching the Ruthenians: Tracing Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Ancestors

Justin K. Houser

 

Presidential Censuses and Passenger Manifests, Part II

Stephen P. Morse, PhD

 

Departments

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

David Rencher, AG, CG, FUGA, FIGRS, FNGS

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

Sunny Jane Morton

 

NGS NEWS

NGS 2027 in Madison: Get Ready!

In Memoriam

 

NGS Awards and Competition Results Announced

REFERENCE DESK

The SS-5 Form: Its Origin and Genealogical Value

Kathy Petlewski, MSLS

 

SOCIEY FORUM

Redressing Redlining: Using Genealogy to Uplift Homeownership

Jennie Cole, MA, MLIS

 

GENTECH SOLUTIONS

David Rumsey Map Collection, Part I

Robert Raymond, MS

 

DNA DISCOVERY

Stronger Together: Correlating Multiple Forms of DNA Evidence

Paul Woodbury, MEd, AG

 

 

NGS Magazine is published quarterly to update members of the National Genealogical Society on NGS activities and to provide genealogists with special information and guidance on conducting effective genealogical research. The magazine is sent to libraries by subscription. Online access to NGS Magazine is available as long as membership is active. An index to the titles and authors of articles in issues from 2005 to 2025 is available.

Three Ways to Celebrate America 250

 

The 4th of July weekend is America’s yearly celebration of independence. This year, we have something else to celebrate, the semiquincentennial, 250 years of independence.

When you think about it, 250 years is really something to celebrate. There’s no doubt we are celebrating America’s story, but America’s story is also our family’s story. As family historians, this is a perfect occasion to consider how America250 relates to our family history.

Why not take this opportunity to write up a narrative of your family history? Whether it’s writing about your ancestors’ immigration stories, their experiences in the Revolutionary War, or even family celebrations in 1976 during the bicentennial, this 4th of July is a good time to get that information written and shared with family.

As you consider ways to celebrate America250, consider the following three ideas.

1.      Share Your Memories. Remember the bicentennial? Where were you in 1976? If you remember the bicentennial, now’s the time to share your memories and photos with your family. If you weren’t around in 1976, it’s a good time to ask your family about their memories of the celebration. Even if you don’t remember the bicentennial, there are collections online that can help you create writing prompts or interview questions to ask older family members. You can read more about bicentennial activities on websites such as The Story of the 1975-1976 American Freedom Train, American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s The Bicentennial Collection, and The Smithsonian’s 1976 Bicentennial of American Independence.

 

2.      Cook Up Some History. Hot dogs and hamburgers are standard fare on the 4th but consider this an opportunity to cook up some history for America250. Historical digitized cookbooks provide some ideas about things to cook. The first cookbook by an American for Americans was authored by Amelia Simmons and is titled American cookery, or The art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake… You can find a digitized copy at Michigan State University’s Feeding America collection . Other digitized historical American cookbooks can be found at Internet Archives’ Cookbooks and Home Economics digital collection.

 

3.      Family History is America’s Story. Even though the 4th of July will be over soon, don’t let that stop you from telling your uniquely American story. NGS has published a tool kit guide with resources to tell that story. Focusing on what genealogy societies and other organizations can do in 2026, this FREE PDF points to practical, easy ways to increase outreach, engage a wide range of people, and work with partners to grow the genealogy and family history community. It includes:

·         An introduction to America250,

·         Organizations for resources, information, and partnerships,

·         Tips and suggestions to support success,

·         Ideas for activities and events, and more.

Download this toolkit from the NGS website. NGS OrgConnects! on Outreach and Partnerships for America at 250 and Beyond provides more ideas.

Have You Heard the Latest About PERSI?

 

PERSI—the Periodical Source Index—is “the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals.” This valuable resource provides over 3.2 million citations to tens of thousands of periodicals across North America, the British Isles, and Europe. Produced by staff at Allen County Public Library (ACPL) Genealogy Center, it resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Curt Witcher, Director of Special Collections at ACPL recently shared exciting news about PERSI at the NGS 2026 Family History Conference. Fully 22% of the articles in PERSI are now linked to digitized articles. Researchers no longer have to travel to Fort Wayne to find and copy journal articles or pay ACPL for copies to be made and mailed to them.

To use this amazing repository, go to PERSI.

Choose one of the search options including Article Title Keyword.

Articles that have been digitized will show an icon that you can click and download the article. 

Once you click on that icon, you will be directed to the digitized article.

Articles are either digitized by ACPL and available via PDF or you will be re-directed to a website that has the article digitized, such as in this example where the article has been digitized by the Kansas Historical Society.

You can learn more about how to use PERSI for your genealogical research by watching the NGS video, Member Connects: Up Close and Personal with PERSI featuring Jeanette Sheliga, Dawn Slater, AG, CG and Cari Taplin, CG.

Not all articles have been digitized but that is the perfect excuse to check off one more destination on your family history bucket list: a visit to the Genealogy Center.

In the meantime, thanks to the dedicated staff at the Genealogy Center, we can mine even more resources from the comfort of our homes with the promise of additional digitize articles over time.