Occupations and Professions in your family

[Christopher]

This thread should prove helpful to people searching for members of their family via their professions or trades.
Rootsweb Guide to Tracing your Family Tree   Tony Robinson, of the BBC programme "The Time Team" has some thoughts on genealogy which make interesting reading. 

Click here for the Hall Genealogy website if you would like to know more about a particular occupation.
A similar site is GenDoc's Glossary of Ranks, Occupations, Professions and Trades.
Kerry has found another good site ... DOT Dictionary of Occupational Titles
I doubt convicts qualify as an occupation but the information is at hand here.

Army 1. Army Museums Ogilby Trust
Army 2. Finding British Army Ancestors
Army 3. Genuki British Military Records
British Transport Police
Clergymen
Coal miner
Coastguard Service
Coastguard Service in Ireland
Convicts to Australia
Customs & Excise
Customs & Excise, Revenue Police & Coastguards
Customs and Excise. Article from Your Family Tree. 
Diver
Doctors  
Females It's not exactly an occupation but they can be hard to find.
General Practitioners
Gold miner
Merchant Navy ... Merseyside Maritime Museum article
Military Pay Site
Nurses
Military - Researching records
Photographer
Postmen
Racehorse Breeder
Railway worker Pay Site
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
Royal Navy 20th Century
Showman, Circus and Fairground Travellers
Teachers in England and Wales

The Links pages on The Genealogist's Internet website contains a lot of useful links.

[patmon]

Pork Cutter what exactly did they do.Wasn't on that site

[Christopher]

Doctors, General Practitioners, Physicians and Surgeons

The most frequently consulted item in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland archives is the "Kirkpatrick Archive". It is a unique collection of biographical material on over 10,000 Irish doctors from earliest times to the 20th century, compiled by the distinguished medical historian, Dr. T. P. C. Kirkpatrick. This source is in constant demand from genealogical researchers.

Source: The Long 18th Century - 'The Physical Record'
Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, Queen's University, Belfast

[Christopher]

Pork Cutter what exactly did they do.Wasn't on that site

Hiya patmon,

I'd say a Pork Cutter worked in an Abattoir or Slaughterhouse.

Christopher

[patmon]

Thank you Christopher.The 1901 census shows my husbands greatgrandfather was a pork cutter.I believe Smithfield was where most of them worked.

[orangelil]

anyone know what a carrier was?  circa 1897

[Christopher]

anyone know what a carrier was?  circa 1897

Although a "carrier" is not on the list I'm sure it is the same as a "carter"

Carter  Carrier of goods by wagon 

[ulsterroots]

any idea what a 'machine master' did?

[Christopher]

A Master is one of the three grades of skill recognised by a Crafts Guild. He was a skilled tradesman who probably had a few guys, including apprentices, working under him. They would have worked somewhere where there was machinery. If you are looking for a particular ancestor who was a nachine master if he was living in Belfast he could have been in a linen mill, the Belfast Ropeworks or the shipyards. If he was in a rural area more than likely he was in a linen mill. 

[murraymints]

Anyone know what a "motor man" would have done?

[eddiec]

Usually a driver. My G-Uncle and grandfather were both listed as motor men. My grandfather was also listed as lorry driver and my G_Uncle worked for a coach company. I think the name was Sloan's Motor Coaches.

[MAgeeka]

What was a  linen master.  I mean ,what exactly did he do.

[Christopher]

What was a  linen master.  I mean ,what exactly did he do.

Hiya Mageeka .. I think a linen master was a person who had served their time in a linen mill and had a good knowledge of the industry. They may have been a foreman or a mill manager. I contacted the Linen Museum in Lisburn but their researcher does not work on a Saturday. The girl who answered the phone asked for the opinions of some of the other members of the staff at the museum and they came to the same conclusion as myself. I left a message asking their researcher to post a reply on this board when she is at work next week.

[MAgeeka]

I heard the term linen master from my Dad RIP when he spoke of my great Granda,  My  Dad stated that my Great Granda   could inspect linen and tell where it was woven and almost by whom.
I don't know if this was an overstatement,  or whether that was possible   
My Great granda operated a hand loom, in his early years. 
His other forte, was poetry
He wrote a poem about the fox -  hunt at the "Pointe " in Laurencetown, Co.Down.  This poem , I have been unable, to acquire  He also wrote a tribute to a "Miss or Lady Dunbar, who must have been a prominent figure in that area.   He states in his poem, that she was some sort of Saviour, to those who had to deal with the famine

[teap]

What did a spinning master do?
my grt Grandmothers father was one he and her mother werent married at the time of her baptism in 1871'
He was Michael Mulholland she was Margaret Oneill and my grt grandmother was Margaret Mulholland (wonder why she got her dads surname even though her parents werent married?)

Colette