Virginia Business and Occupations • FamilySearch

Vatobacco.jpg

Tobacco was Virginia's major domestic product. It was shipped to Europe and the Caribbean during colonial times. Before the Civil War, plantation owners relied on slave labor to produce their crops.

Many Virginia colonial settlers could not afford to pay the passage from Europe to America and labored without wages for a set number of years (usually four or five) once they arrived as indentured servants.

Identifying a Virginia ancestor's occupation[edit | edit source]

The occupations of Virginians are identified in a variety of sources. Takers of the 1820 U.S. Federal Census distinguished between residents who worked in agriculture and those who worked in manufacturing. From 1850 forward, census takers recorded occupations for each person they enumerated.

Deeds and wills often identify men by their occupations.

Gill identifies many Virginia colonists who served apprenticeships to learn specific trades, though the list is incomplete:

Gill, Harold B. Apprentices of Virginia, 1623-1800. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry Pub., 1989. FHL Book 975.5 U2g.

v • d• e Links to Virginia-related articles (see also West Virginia-related articles)

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Migration Routes	Routes: Chesapeake Bay • James River • Potomac River • Rappahannock River • York River • Chesapeake and Ohio Canal • Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad • Fall Line Road (or Southern Road) • Great Indian Warpath • Great Trading Path • Great Valley Road • Kanawha Trail • King's Highway • National Road (Cumberland Road) • New River and Southern Trail • Occaneechi Path • Old Cherokee Path • Old Northwestern Turnpike • Pamunkey-New River Trail • Pioneer Road • Richmond Road • Richmond-Williamsburg Road • Saura-Saponi Trail • Secondary Coast Road • Upper Road • Wilderness Road • Wilmington, Highpoint, and Northern Trail • Ports: Atlantic Coast Ports • Accomack • Alexandria • Belvoir Plantation • Bermuda Hundred • Dumfries • Falmouth • Fredericksburg • Hampton • Jamestown • Leedstown • Norfolk • Port Royal • Portsmouth • South Quay • Suffolk • Tappahannock (aka Hobb's Hole) • Urbanna • Williamsburg • Yorktown