It’s spring time and the weather is beautiful! March 2026 is also ready to disappear into history, but we have one last Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post this month with our challenge:

1)  Our ancestors had to work to support themselves and their families.  Do you know what occupations your 2nd great-grandfathers had?  Tell us about them.  If one intrigues or mystifies you, ask a free Artificial Intelligence tool to tell you more about the occupation in that place and time.

This week’s challenge will be a quick one for me. My paternal 2X great grandparents were all Rusyns, born years before 1850:

John Kucharik (1820-1893) lived in Okruzna, Slovakia.
Michael Kacsenyak (1834- after 1899) lived in Ruska Nova Ves, Slovakia.
John Scerbak (1836-1916) lived in Udol, Slovakia.
John Murcko (1831-1917) lived in the neighboring village of Hajtovka, Slovakia.

All four villages are in the Presov region of Slovakia, but Udol and Hajtovka are about 40 miles away from Okruzna and Ruska Nova Ves.

That year is important because until that time, villagers were basically serfs doing farm or animal chores for the local noble or working as servants. Like their ancestors, none was literate and there was no opportunity for education in the village unless a son was viewed as promising by the village priest and then educated.

After 1850, life didn’t change much for anyone because villagers still had no spare money or the ability to create a business. By the 1880s, the current generation began the migration from home to America for the chance of a better life.

My maternal family tree is completely different, both in ethnic origins and occupations.

Calvin Segee Adams (1843-1921) was a master boat builder. His boatyard built many of the boats and schooners that were prevalent in the Calais, Washington, Maine area that bordered New Brunswick, Canada.

Charles Augustus Stewart (1822-1894) was a small farmer who owned his own land, living in Meddybemps, Washington, Maine.

William Coleman (1834-1905) was a master mariner who piloted tugboats that guided large vessels in the Bay of Fundy and up the St. Croix River in Calais, Washington, Maine.

Frits Willie Oscar Emil Jensen (1845-1920) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and lived in several towns in Denmark before coming to the U.S. in 1884. His reported occupation in the 1900 census was that of detective, which I thought was unusual for life in Calais, Maine, where the family settled. However, back in Denmark, he worked as a policeman in the local prison, so detective might have been the translated word that he chose to describe his work. Frits was apparently loathe to work in Calais and, according to my grandmother, her father kicked Frits out of the house when her mother (Frits’ daughter) died in 1916. His lack of work is supported by the 1910 and 1920 censuses which show no occupation.

This was an interesting challenge, comparing the disparity in life opportunities that were available to each side of my family tree.