Week 35: At Work

   What did your ancestors do for work? Did they have a specialized skill or were they just a jack of all trades? Did they struggle to keep a job or were they employed at the same place for most of their life? Did they love their job or were they in it just for a paycheck? These are all questions you should ask yourself when researching your ancestor's occupations. Some you may not ever find answers to, but some might open your eyes to who your ancestor was and fill in more details about their character.
     As a society, we seem to go through shifts when it comes to employment. I've been researching the time period my ancestors immigrated to America; learning more about the culture, customs, and the struggles immigrants went through. This includes their occupations; what was available, did they appear to have any specialized skills, how long did they go between jobs, and even where they lived. The location of their residence will let you know if they were well off, if they were renting, if they were in a lower-class area, etc.
     Researching Frank Ilg, my 2nd great-grandfather, I learned about the many jobs he held once he came to the United States. He was a Laborer, Bookkeeper, and a Shoemaker during his short time here in the United States. I say "short" time because he died in 1901, only 13 years after he arrived, from a "supposed" work-related accident. He worked for the Provident Chemical Company at that time, which manufactured medicines. During his life, he and his family moved around a lot to different houses, and they always rented. I have learned that the location of the room they rented determined if they had money or not. They always lived in the "rear" of the building, the cheaper rooms available for rent, which indicated that they were poor. The rear rooms did not have proper sanitation or light making them more affordable than the more desired rooms in front. I studied the conditions of the city during this time from this book here: Housing conditions in St. Louis. After he died, Pauline washed clothes to earn a living, which barely brought in any money.
     Years later, her son, Joseph Ilg, after also bouncing around from job to job as a laborer and tool grinder, got a job at the local newspaper: The St. Louis Post Dispatch. He started working in 1923 on a German imported roller press, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi and worked there until he retired in 1964. He had a specialized job and made a life long career out of it. They were able to afford to live in better neighborhoods and have a better life. My grandpa, Les Wheeler, also worked at the St. Louis Post Dispatch as well until he retired. It wasn't his dream position, but it helped his family afford the basic necessities. His love was cars, so on the side, he had his own used car lot along with a garage. See the pictures below.

Les Wheeler working

St. Louis Post Dispatch

Les Wheeler Auto Sales

     During my grandfather's and great-grandfather's lives, the economy was focused on finding a good career to have job security and then be able to afford the finer things in life. The American Dream. Through the last 10-15 years it seems, we are going through a shift once again. Most people are not staying in their job for all of their lives. Whether it be from quitting to do something else, finding another job that pays more money or being laid off, we don't have the job security like our ancestors had. College used to guarantee you would get a good job, and keep it for a long time. That just doesn't exist anymore. More people are now skipping college and going more into the trades.
     Now I'm not an economist nor do I understand the politics behind it all, but I do see a huge paradigm shift in our economy and am curious to see what the next 50-75 years (if I live that long) bring. For now, I will focus on the employment of my ancestors. What kind of work did your ancestors do?