Have you ever seen an ancestor's occupation in a census schedule or newspaper article and ended up perplexed? I have, and it meant doing some research to figure out just exactly what that person did for a living. There are many occupations that simply do not exist anymore, or, if they do, they are vastly different from how our ancestor's worked at those jobs a hundred or two hundred years ago.
I created a series of forty Occupations of the Past cards that are FREE for anyone to download. There are a number of ways in which you can use these cards with children to teach them a little bit about some of the occupations of the past. Here are some suggestions, but I'm sure you could think of more:
1.) Print out two sets of the cards and create a memory matching game. (This would require printing the cards out on a heavier cardstock or gluing the cards to a heavier paper backing so that the designs and words do not show through to the other side.)
2.) Hang the cards on a bulletin board or posterboard for display.
3.) Create a roleplay game in which a child chooses a card and must act out that occupation.
4.) For older children: Have the child pick a card, and then use Google to discover more about that occupation.
You could also create more of these cards that are more specific to the occupations represented in your own family tree. All of the images I used are from the public domain, from resources such as OpenClipArt.org and Wikimedia Commons, but if you have a photo of ancestor on the job, that would be a great addition to this collection.
The BEST resource I have found for defining old occupations is The Dictionary of Old Occupations, which can be purchased as a traditional book or ebook, or you may it view online at Family Researcher.co.uk. (NOT affiliate links.)
The following websites also maintain good information about Colonial American trades and occupations, so if you are interested in that time period, I highly recommend that you check them out.
Colonial Williamsburg
Mount Vernon
Land of the Brave
The card file is in PDF format, and is TEN pages long. You can download the file by clicking on the image below:
I created a series of forty Occupations of the Past cards that are FREE for anyone to download. There are a number of ways in which you can use these cards with children to teach them a little bit about some of the occupations of the past. Here are some suggestions, but I'm sure you could think of more:
1.) Print out two sets of the cards and create a memory matching game. (This would require printing the cards out on a heavier cardstock or gluing the cards to a heavier paper backing so that the designs and words do not show through to the other side.)
2.) Hang the cards on a bulletin board or posterboard for display.
3.) Create a roleplay game in which a child chooses a card and must act out that occupation.
4.) For older children: Have the child pick a card, and then use Google to discover more about that occupation.
You could also create more of these cards that are more specific to the occupations represented in your own family tree. All of the images I used are from the public domain, from resources such as OpenClipArt.org and Wikimedia Commons, but if you have a photo of ancestor on the job, that would be a great addition to this collection.
The BEST resource I have found for defining old occupations is The Dictionary of Old Occupations, which can be purchased as a traditional book or ebook, or you may it view online at Family Researcher.co.uk. (NOT affiliate links.)
The following websites also maintain good information about Colonial American trades and occupations, so if you are interested in that time period, I highly recommend that you check them out.
Colonial Williamsburg
Mount Vernon
Land of the Brave
The card file is in PDF format, and is TEN pages long. You can download the file by clicking on the image below:
©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder. Printables for personal and educational use only. Please do not mass reproduce or redistribute material without written consent of owner.
