The article studies the main regulatory documents of the second half of the XIX c. which regulated the sphere of occupation registration. The author analyzed legislative and other organizational and legal sources focusing on those characterizing civil registration. Thus, church registration documents were excluded from the main research domain. The author laid a particular emphasis on the way occupations of civil servants (officials) were registered. The main sources under study were edicts, statues and codes of statues providing information about the development of legislation in the sphere of occupation registration throughout the Russian Empire. The emphasis was laid on documents of the Altai (mountain) District. It was at the level of Altai (mountain) District where the implementation of definite statutory regulations has been studied. Moreover, within the boarders of a definite administrative unit local regulatory acts were examined which specify national legal acts in the sphere of occupation registration (employment rules, the district staff standing operating procedure, ordinances of the district head).