Just a short post tonight as I have only a little bit of time to write.

I have been thinking this evening about what some of my ancestors did for a living.

In my Labor Day post last year I wrote about the occupation of some of my ancestors.

In Ancestral Postmasters I wrote about two of my ancestors who were postmasters.

Many of my ancestors worked in the fields as farmers, but my Grandpa Braman worked in the fields of a nursery.

My great grandfather may have worked in this building in Omaha where Ford built the Model T. See: TipTop Ford

My 10th great grandfather Joseph Jenks worked at the Saugus Iron Works as a toolmaker.

The iron works at Saugus were founded by the Leonard family who then went on to found the Leonard Iron Works near Taunton, Massachusetts. I have just recently found out that my Braman ancestors may have worked at these iron works. I am still trying to figure out the records that I have found, but perhaps they were bound as apprentices to the Leonard Iron Works. I do know that there are many blacksmiths scattered throughout this branch of my family.

Silas Ramsey, one of the few Civil War ancestors that I know of served as a farrier for the 3rd Iowa Cavalry. He may of also been a blacksmith as a farrier uses some of the skills of a blacksmith in their care of horses feet, especially at a time when manufactured horse shoes would not have been readily available.

I now understand a little more of why I am an engineer 🙂 Perhaps it is a bit in the genes.

Steven