Workplace Records

Xenia Stanford details an unconventional approach that can prove rewarding.

The relationship between an ancestor’s profession and genealogy was stated best by the following quip attributed to Mark Twain: “Why waste your money looking up your family tree, just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” Unfortunately most of us are not so lucky as to have had our family tree thoroughly investigated by others. However, there are records related to our ancestors’ occupations that many of us have not uncovered and which may hold valuable information for us in building our family tree. After all, family histories are much more than just the vital statistics of birth, marriage and death.

This ad, which probably appeared in the Montreal Star, was run to announce Lance Corporal Stanford's return from service and to advertise the store's expansion and renovation.

Finding An Ancestor’s Occupation
Usually it is easy to discover what your ancestors did for a living, as you will find the information in the same sources normally searched for vital records. Birth, marriage and death records often list the occupations of the principal adult males named in them. Obituaries, funeral cards and even tombstones can reveal the former occupations of the deceased. Census records, voter lists and passenger lists, other emigration and immigration records, such as border crossings and naturalizations, can also provide clues.

Wills and other estate or property settlements can reveal company ownership, as businessmen may have had business assets to dispose of. Sometimes divorce, annulment or prenuptial records can disclose business holdings or involvement.

Business and street directories, such as those published by Henderson or Polk, are also means of discovering ancestors’ occupations. Usually an alphabetical list by surname will give the name and occupation of the head of the household and often of all people working at the time. If the name of a firm is given beside the name of an employee or owner, more information can usually be found by checking the business section entry. Sometimes advertisements for the business can be found in the commercial section.

Finding the actual business documents themselves can provide sources for information on the person’s profession. Sales of businesses, mergers, dissolutions, bankruptcies, civil suits or criminal cases may be searched to locate the business owners and in some cases the employees.

Finding Workplace Documents
Once you have discovered the ancestor’s occupation, you can search for workplace records to discover more information about this particular person. While it can often be more frustrating to find workplace records than those for vital records, it may pay more fruitful dividends. Also if the source of the information was a court filing, this is open to public access much more readily in most cases than more recent vital statistics, which still may be protected under privacy limits.

Knowing the types of records that existed for businesses in which your ancestor was involved will help you determine what records may be worthwhile pursuing. Detailed employee records found in personnel files would be the most valuable to family historians but these are often the ones still protected under privacy laws or which were destroyed after the statutory requirements for retention were met. However, many companies will still have information on dates of employment and position, which will still be helpful to build a picture of the life of your ancestor.

Using Company Archives
The company may have kept records of employment in their own archives, which may be located either in their offices or in a separately maintained museum. A listing of some sources of company records can be found online at such sites as www.history.ohio-state.edu/bus-arch.htm or in printed directories, such as the Directory of Business Archives in the United States and Canada published by Society of American Archivists, Business Archives Section (Chicago, 1975-).

Some separate archives, such as The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, offer access to their records in person or by mail. A few accept fax or e-mail requests. For example the guidelines for access to archival records for Ford Motor employees can be found at www.hfmgv.org. However, do not be surprised if no record can be located for your ancestor even if you know he or she worked for this company. If your ancestor was a casual or contractual laborer rather than a member of the salaried staff, he or she may never have been entered into the company books since laborers were paid by the hour or day, usually in cash or cashier’s check.

Even defunct companies of historical interest may have separate archives still maintained in some central location. However, many companies whether still active or not have not kept their archival records themselves but forwarded them to local city, state or national archives. For example Molson’s in Canada deposited their archives with the National Library of Canada (www.nlc-bnc.ca/amicus/nlccat-e.htm) and many American companies have forwarded theirs to the Library of Congress (lcweb.loc.gov/catalog/).

Searching the catalogues of these two libraries (both of which are accessible via the web) may help you find the source of your ancestor’s employee records. Some records may then be obtained by interlibrary loan via your local library. However, most documents of this type are only available for reproduction of the relevant portion at the holding library. If you cannot go there and choose not to hire a researcher to do so on your behalf, you can sometimes arrange the copying service through your local library or by written request directly to the holding library. Unfortunately, some archives such as Molson’s, are not indexed and library staff do not have time to search them on your behalf.

In England, company archives may be held at the Greater London Guildhall Library. Although you may find the company in which you are interested listed on the Guildhall Library website (ihr.sas.ac.uk/ihr/nra/nratbase.html#eng) you must either visit them in person to access the records or hire a local researcher. Since many of these records are considered

confidential in nature, some are available only by restricted access. Permission from the company that deposited the records and proof of the requestor’s identity and address are required prior to access. Some of the archives are offsite and require 24 hours notice for retrieval.

This ad was used in newspaper and business directory advertising in 1942. (Scrapbook clipping used with permission of Mark Stanford.)

National or public archives may contain records about government employees or civil servants and in many cases archives of other companies, which are now housed in these institutions. For example the National Archives of Canada’s online guide (www.archives.ca/exec/) lists sources of personnel records dating back to 1764 and public appointments, including postmasters and postmistresses. It also covers records of Canadian National Railways (RG 30) and other railway companies that operated in Canada. Some of the civil lists and annual reports retained by the government will include employee names, dates and positions held. The National Archives and Records Administration for the United States (www.access.gpo.gov/nara) covers similar information for American civil servants and companies’ archives housed there.

Public Records
If your ancestor was a business owner, partner or member of the executive, you may have more success at finding details. Records of incorporation, registration and licensing may give the names, positions, home addresses and other details of directors or founding officers. Any other records required by law, such as annual returns, are also valuable sources if your ancestor was involved in ownership of the company as it can show how he was doing financially. These will be readily accessible in most cases in the government archives for the jurisdiction in which they had to be filed.

If the company is still in existence, they may have a press biography available for executive personnel either current or past. These are usually obtainable for the asking if you state for what purpose you require them. Even if the company is no longer operating you may be able to find executive biographical information. If the company was listed on a stock exchange, there should be management reports or a management section in annual reports with brief biographies for its chief officers.

Finding public records for private companies may be a bit more difficult. There will be papers of incorporation and other legally required documents but other information either was not required or is restricted. However from 1841 forward, credit histories of both public and private companies were produced by the Mercantile Agency (later known as R. G. Dun and Company and today by the name Dun and Bradstreet). Their records will give the financial viability and payment history of any company that applied for credit or for which a credit check was requested. Coverage initially included American and Canadian companies but has extended to many European and other countries. These files often contain biographical information on chief officers of a company as well as a listing of any lawsuits filed by or against the company. The lawsuits may provide further ancestral detail if your family member was personally named in the suit or gave evidence on behalf of the company.

Many early Dun and Bradstreet records (e.g. 1841–90 ledger books) are held in the Baker Library at Harvard University. Others are located at Dun and Bradstreet’s major offices in various countries. Reports on current companies are available on Dun and Bradstreet’s website (www.dnb.com/dnbhome.htm). If you find the company listed during the free search, the best report to choose for information of genealogical interest is the Business Background Report, which can be obtained on the web for a charge on your credit card.

In Great Britain and many of her former colonies these are found in periodical publications called Gazettes. Canadian coverage, for example, is through Part I of the Canada Gazette, which contains information on incorporations, name changes, mergers, dissolutions and other company events that had to be filed or approved by the federal government. There are provincial gazettes for companies that filed under these jurisdictions. Prior to Confederation similar records may be found in the Upper and Lower Canada Gazettes or in the Quarter Session Lists for the appropriate region. These will cover many business license applications and grants as well as those that were called into question or revoked.

For businesses in the US the term used is Register preceded by the name of the jurisdiction whether state or federal. The Notices section of the Federal Register contains non-statutory information, such as hearing and investigation notices, agency decisions and rulings, delegations of authority, issuances or revocation of licenses, grant application deadlines, availability of environmental impact statements, filing of petitions and applications, and agency statements of organization and functions. It can be searched online (www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/
aces5406.html).

Published Sources
Published biographies or business directories are other sources of significant business owners or employees. Most countries have directories such as Who’s Who dating back to at least the late 19th century. There are many business directories, such as the Blue Book of Business, often organized by the type of industry.

For any profession governed by peers or legal requirement there will be separately held directories of licensed practitioners. Doctors are listed in medical registers and lawyers are covered by the bar association to which they applied. Other professions may have had voluntary associations and these may have membership listings with some biographical information.

Newspapers are often a great source of information on a company, its principals or employees. From advertising to newspaper stories about the company, many of which include photographs, these can be great means of discovering what and how well your ancestor did. Many of these searches must be conducted by tedious scanning of full-text newspapers on microfilm as most local newspapers are not indexed. However, some larger newspapers were indexed under subject headings including names of individuals or businesses.

Some of these indexes can be found in the International Index to Periodicals or in the newspapers’ own published index. For example the New York Times Index, which dates back to at least 1851, reveals interesting information without even checking the full story. This tidbit was found in the 1851 index: Stanford, Lena – adjudged too young for duties of housewife, is sent to St. Germain’s Home, Peekskill, NY 28, 25:2.

Books published by or about an organization may list your family members if they contributed in some significant way. By searching library catalogues or indexes you may be lucky enough to find a book about the employees of the company for which one of your ancestors worked.

Problems In Locating and Accessing Workplace Records
Workplace records are decentralized, as each company or organization is responsible for their own. Sometimes for small companies, the archives fell into the hands of descendants of the owner and these may be dispersed among various family members reluctant to give up their portion. Even records sent to the municipal, state or national archives are probably not indexed or organized in a fashion for easy access to the required information.

Company records are differently organized according to their individual filing system or lack thereof. Financial and payroll records are often the best organized due to government regulations and reporting requirements. Even if their files are well organized, the company does not have to reveal any records to external sources, except those required by law and even some of those are considered private between the filing agency and the organization.

Another problem is retention. The older the record the more value it may prove to the genealogist. However, the older ones are the ones most likely to have been destroyed. How long records are kept is up to the discretion of the companies, except those required to keep records by law. Even those are in most cases only required for a certain period of time, for example seven years for most personnel records. Then they can be and often are destroyed.

However, if one avenue is closed there is often another. Once you start on the journey of discovering employee and employer documents you will find sources are many and varied. Leaving no stone unturned in the quest for this type of information leads to an interesting and often successful journey. Persistence and patience pay off in genealogical research whether you are seeking vital statistics
or workplace records.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2000 issue of Family Chronicle.