President Calvin Coolidge said, "The chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing, and prospering in the world." That sentiment may be true, but Americans haven't cornered the market where business is concerned. Ever since cavemen scratched on walls with rocks, people throughout the world have bartered, traded, bought, and sold goods and services.

The good news for family history sleuths is this: where there are businesses, there are consumers, and where there are consumers, there are ancestors.

We tend to picture our hardworking and industrious ancestors living off the land, raising their own food, sewing their own clothes, and making their own soap and hand tools. Depending on the historical time frame, that's often true to some extent.

In 1820, 86 percent of the American population lived on a farm, and many of them probably did fend for themselves for food, clothing, and the odd household gadget. But, by 1900 that number had dropped to 36 percent. So, even though some of your ancestors may have been self- sufficient holdouts well into the twentieth century, most of them ventured into town occasionally leaving a trail of clues in one store after another.

Before computers, credit cards, and super-secret PIN numbers, some people relied on a name and a handshake to conduct business. Yet, to keep all the details tidy, most business owners kept handwritten ledgers or account books of their daily transactions. For example, businessman Henry O'Neill kept ledger books for his general store in Santa Fe. The two books still in existence cover the years 1854-59, listing customer names and what they purchased. You'll also find the date and how much the items cost.

If you find your ancestors listed in a general store ledger, you'll get an insider's glimpse into their habits and inclinations. While many of O'Neill's customers purchased fabric, shoes, canned goods, and the occasional cup and saucer, people plunked down the most cash for alcohol.

Aside from mercantile eavesdropping, these ledgers also put your ancestors into a certain place and time. This can be particularly helpful, especially in the gap between census years, when you're trying to trace their movements across the ancestral landscape.

Additionally, these ledgers often have added notations that help genealogists. For example, an eighteenth-century ledger for the Rock Run Store in Maryland noted on Elizabeth Gover's account that she was the mother of Samuel and Cassandra. Henry O'Neill also made comments in his ledgers, such as a customer's residence or occupation, and he noted when customers died.

Retail businesses aren't the only type of commercial records that are valuable when hunting down ancestors. You might find bank records, law firm or physician account lists, and hotel ledgers.

Business records are usually considered historical documents. Therefore, you can find them most often in libraries and archives as part of their manuscripts collections.

Conduct your search for business ledgers based on location and time. For online catalogs try a variety of terms: ledger, daybook, journal, account book, retail, general store, and sales. For example, a search of the Ohio Historical Society library catalog yielded forty-six hits using the terms "general store daybook."

Use the WorldCat online catalog to search for far-flung records. Even though a nineteenth-century proprietor operated his store in Nebraska, you might find his records in a California library.

You can also check for business records in local repositories where your ancestors lived, such as historical societies, museums, and public libraries.

When hunting for ancestral buying habits, don't limit yourself to the local stomping grounds. Our ancestors did occasionally hitch up the buckboard for an overland trip to a neighboring county or even to a large city several days travel away.

Finding an existing business account book for a store where and when your ancestor may have shopped is challenging, but fortunately many of the ledgers have built-in indexes, which are some consolation for your arduous detective work. Even if you don't spot your ancestor in a business ledger, the books are fascinating snapshots of that long ago time.

Genealogist Mary Penner writes "Lineage Lessons," a weekly genealogy column, for the Albuquerque Tribune. She can be reached through her website.

> Comment on this article