Cobbler, Tailor, Trunkmaker: How My Grandpappies Made A Living

Ginger Frere

Cobbler, Tailor, Trunkmaker: How My Grandpappies Made A Living

Doing Family history is more than collecting names and dates. Most of us want to “get to know” our ancestors as much as possible and to understand their lives. How we make a living is an important part of who we are and why we do things.  Through the use of case studies, this talk will explain methods for discovering more details about our ancestors’ occupations. Even if we can’t find specifics such as employment records, there are other ways to gain a better picture of how our ancestors lived and worked.

A life-long Chicagoan, Ginger Frere MBA, MLIS, has been involved in family history for over 20 years. She has an extensive technical and training background with years of experience introducing people to technology.

In addition to working with private clients, speaking and teaching seminars, Ginger is a reference librarian in the Genealogy and Local History Section at the Newberry Library in Chicago, where her responsibilities include providing reference services and working on digital projects. She is co-director of ChicagoAncestors.org, a free website for finding and sharing historical information about Chicago.