During my hours spent trawling through census records as part of my research in coffee mill makers, I’ve come across some very strange entries in the column marked ‘Occupations’.
There are some pleasingly personal views of the enumerators here.
Here are just a few: I hope you find as much delight in them as I do!
From the 1851 census:
Head of House: George Beebee – Believed all females in this house are prostitutes. (and I believe that this is the enumerator’s personal view)
Isabella Jackson: Lives as Aston’s wife
John Rushton: Beast Leech (I know of ‘Beast Leech’ used to describe the leech used for medicinal purposes, but never found this as an occupation before)
1861:
Edwin Moore: Castrator (presumably of horses, although one never knows!)
John Pritchard: Tragedarian (was ‘actor’ not good enough?)
Julie Welsh: Unlawfully cohabiting (as an occupation?)
John Winser, head of house, age 12: Mole Catcher (what on earth happened to this poor little mite’s family that resulted in him being the head of the household at age 12?)
Edward Woodcock: Learning the locksmithing
1871:
Elizabeth Appleby: Small grocer’s shop keeper (Small in stature, or in business terms?)
Jane Besamers: Teacher and Authoress
Sophia Billings: Napkin horse maker (your guess, dear reader, is as good as mine)
Georgina Bloomer: Ballad girl
Esther Bodill: Occasional rope maker (I can’t help wondering what an occasional rope may be)
Catherine Boyle: Pressing ears for buckets
Ursula Brevitt age 62: Publican/Coal Miner
Elizabeth Briggs: Indigestion
Charles Griffin: Boy sleeps in outhouse (Poor Charles! I really want to know more about him!)
George E Lloyd: Railway Detective (I know of the ‘Railway Detective’ novels, but had no idea this was a real occupation)
Edward Keay: Makes various things out of iron (I love ‘various’! Why not ‘Blacksmith’?)
Sarah Newton: Milliner (deserted)
Ablena Richards: Paramour (probably my favourite of all these!)
Edward Timmins: Singer of Horses (tempted though I am to think that Edward was a horse whisperer, I think that the verb here is ‘singe’ rather than ‘sing’ – I’m prepared to be corrected, though!)
James Williams: Gold Digger, California (and this from the census for Willenhall)
Start at the beginning – with what you know. Then work back from there.
I’ll create a new page about starting out in Family History (though it may not appear for a week or so!)