Occupations in city directories
I am reviewing City Directories. Instructions say do not index occupations. I have been deleting Rev and Dr from the prefix box. Am i correct. i think this is indexing occupations
Answers
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Rev and Dr are prefixes and are indexed. Occupations refer to something like John Smith, 1234 Mott, barber.
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I agree that some of those, such as Rev. and Dr., are titles and not just occupations. You should restore what you deleted.
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Why not index the occupation? It would make research easier… my ggf was a stone mason, it would be great to search for other masons in his town so I could find affiliations, co-workers, etc… instead of going through the city directory searching for a name that resembles the names listed on my ggf's passenger ship manifest trying to determine the name of fellow masons who came to NY with him. It would be easier to sort by occupation when doing this type of research.
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What is indexed is set by the contract between the record holder and FS. In 10 years here, there has never been a project that indexed occupations because the researcher will be able to see the occupation when they view the document.
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Sophia asked: "Why not index the occupation?"
Because the people setting up the project felt it would not add enough value to offset the additional time and workload for indexing.
I don't disagree with that decision, given how much confusion the whole business-versus-person question causes already.
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Back to the original question: both Rev and Dr are titles, not occupations. "Dr." especially tells you exactly nothing about the person's occupation; he could be a lawyer, a surgeon, a teacher, or a researcher in a laboratory. Or a librarian.
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