Steve, Steve, Thank you for your very interesting and informative post. My ggrandfather John Calvin McKay and his father Dougald McKay were listed as mechanics in the 1860 census for Dale County. Ambrose Dean was also listed as a mechanic. They were listed one after another in the census. Do you happen to know what a mechanic's job would have been in 1860? Betty Vann -----Original Message----- From: alhenry-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:alhenry-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of jselliott@yahoo.com Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 12:53 PM To: ALHENRY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ALHENRY] Vocations of our ancestors... This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/YS.2ADI/3089 Message Board Post: Friends of the Message Boards: In researching our families' history, the principle occupation on all census records before 1880 is usually listed as "farmer." But someone had to perform the many other tasks needed to keep folks moving along. It is my opinion that many of our farming ancestors had second jobs or side-lines to add to the family's income. While reading in Mrs. Marvin Scott's 1961 HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY, ALABAMA on page 37 and 38 she listed the "vocations" of the people of early Henry County. I wanted to share them with you here and get some feedback if possible on exactly what these antiquated terms actually mean, that is, what was involved in doing these "vocations". They are: "Planters, carpenters, merchants, millwrights, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cabinet makers, tailors, turners-who made chair frames and bottomed them with rawhide usually from hide off the face of a beef cow, makers of spinning wheels, whirls and reels and loom shuttles of red or black oak, millers, school teachers, shoemakers, hatters, slays, loom harness and shuttles, cotton presses and running gear to horse gins, some built wooden cotton presses and geared horn power to cotton gins, surveyors of land, stockmen, rock and brick masons, loom makers, and last but not least, later some were members of the militia, for protection against the Indians who were still here until 1838, for which they received no pay." In another paragraph she mentioned the vocation of overseer. From my studies, I have found that this was a good job, but was looked down upon by society because of the methods used by some overseers to keep the African slave labor workforce at work. Notice the different vocations that were related to the production of woolen and cotton cloth. Many was the pioneer home that had a large loom set up in the midst of the already overcrowded log houses of the day. Before steamboat travel reached a modicum of efficiency and before merchants in the "piney woods" carried any of the scarce and expense bolts of cloth of the era, this had to be produced on the farm, many times being sold to neighbors for additional cash flow until the crops could be harvested in the fall. Would really like to know more about the "wrights" of different types; "slays"; and "horn power". The latter two I had never heard of until I read Mrs. Scott's book. Where are all of these vocations in the census records? If you have any information concerning your ancestors being involved in any of these, please pass their names on to me as part of my continuing research of the history of Henry County. Just found these very interesting and thought they shed some light on the day-to-day lives of all of those bare and stark names and dates of folks on our family trees. Very Henry Countily Yours, Steve Elliott Afterthought: Mrs. Scott also states that there were NO cockroaches in Henry County when the early settlers came. At least that was one less pest out of many, many pests they had to deal with daily. Please forgive me if I am taking up valuable space on the Message Boards with posts such as this. I just feel it adds some "flesh" to the bare bones of the skeleton that is "the family tree."--Steve ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALHENRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message