SNGF -- Describe An Ancestor's Occupation

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, is to:

1)  Are there ancestor's occupations that you know nothing about?

2)  Pick a great-grandparent or earlier ancestor who held an unfamiliar job (cooper, cordwainer, hostler, etc.). Look it up and write a short description of what their daily work life might have been like. 

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this week's SNGF challenge!

Here's mine:
One of my husband’s family kin, Joseph McFall (1836-1908), was married to his great-grandfather, Frederick N Davey’s, sister, Catherine Rose Davey. On the Civil War draft registration, Joseph was listed as a caulker.[1] He lived in Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana, which is located on the Ohio River.

There is a wonderful website, “Dictionary of Old Occupations: A-Z Index,” on Family Researcher (https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/glossary/Dictionary-of-Old-Occupations-Index.html). There, I learned a caulker “used tar together with oakum hemp fiber (from old ropes) to fill cracks in wooden ships, casks, windows, or seams to make them watertight.”

Another site, described it as “the caulking process sealed gaps between the planks of a ship, by filling joints or gaps with oakum (loosely twisted fibers made by unraveling old ropes) using irons and caulking mallets and sealing the joints with pitch (pine tar).”[2] Frederick Douglas was a famous caulker in Baltimore, where Black caulkers held a near monopoly of the caulking trade between 1838 and 1858.[3]

The tools used to press the fibers between the cracks were an iron and special caulking mallet. Once the oakum was in the seam, they used a pitch ladle to pour the pitch along the seam to seal it.[4] A picture of the mallet can be seen here. An image of the caulking tool (or iron) can be seen here. This site describes the different sizes of irons used depending on the width of the crack. Here is an image of a caulker at work.

Since Joseph McFall lived in Jeffersonville along the Ohio River, it is likely he was working at a shipyard or boatyard, where he would be caulking on boats. Later, in 1870, he was living in Madison City in Jefferson County, Indiana, which was also on the Ohio River.[5] By 1875, the family lived in Indianapolis and he worked as a car inspector for the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad.[6] Perhaps working at the shipyard gave him experience that coincided with streetcar bodies.

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[1] "U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865," digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1666/images/32178_1220705228_0015-00075 : accessed 22 May 2026), Indiana 2nd Dist, Vol 2, Class 1, Clark County, Jeffersonville, June 1863, Joseph McFall; citing Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863-1865.: NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes. Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110. National Archives, Washington D.C.

[2] “Baltimore’s Black Ship Caulkers,” The Ship Caulkers’ Houses (https://shipcaulkers.org/ : accessed 23 May 2026).

[3] “Frederick Douglas,” The Ship Caulkers’ Houses (https://shipcaulkers.org/ : accessed 23 May 2026).

[4] “Wood Caulking,” Sea Your History (https://seayourhistory.org.uk/content/view/76/164/ : accessed 23 May 2026).

[5] 1870 U.S. census, Jefferson Co, Indiana, City of Madison, p 114, #743, Joseph McFall.

[6] Indianapolis City Directory (Indianapolis, Ind.: R.L. Polk & Co., 1881), p 365, Joseph McFall, car inspector; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/records/548281790 : accessed 23 May 2026).

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