Kentucky Occupation and Business Records

Larger companies sometimes preserved records about their employees over the years. These usually contain the hiring and termination details and may include biographical data about the employees and possibly their families. If the company where an ancestor worked is still in business, they may allow limited access to their historical employee records. Few employee records have been made public, so the individual companies should be contacted for their records.

County court order books and bond books may contain occupational bonds for lawyers, physicians, ministers, and those of other occupations.

Biographies or lists are sometimes compiled of members of specific occupations. Examples of occupational records for Kentucky include:

Hiatt, Noble W. The Silversmiths of Kentucky: Together with Some Watchmakers and Jewelers, 1785–1850. Louisville, KY: Standard Printing, 1954. (FHL book 976.9 U23h.) In addition to biographies of the silversmiths and watchmakers of Kentucky, the silversmiths marks are also given.

The Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky. 1897. Reprint, Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1982. (FHL book 976.9 D3L 1982.) This book is indexed and contains several hundred biographies of Kentucky lawyers.

The Family History Library also has a volume of biographical sketches on a few early Kentucky physicians and a list of Kentucky postmasters from 1794 to 1819. See the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

KENTUCKY- OCCUPATIONS