Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (81 page)

On many occasions, you may discover an occupation listed on a civil registration certificate or census return that leaves you scratching your head as to what the job actually entailed. Here are some of the more obscure lines of work that kept our ancestors busy – if not always clean, satisfied, happy or safe. They have been drawn predominantly from historic census returns, and if an occupation is not listed below, there are more definitions of historic occupations at www.genuki.org.uk and www.rmhh.co.uk/occup.html.

Accipitrary – An individual who catches birds of prey

Agister – An individual working as an official in a Royal Forest

Amanuensis – An individual taking diction or copying from manuscripts professionally

Armiger – An esquire, an individual who was entitled to bear heraldic arms

Accoucher / Accoucheuse – An individual assisting a woman giving birth, a midwife

Balister – An individual working as a crossbow man

Blemmere – An individual working as a plumber

Boniface – An innkeeper or landlord of an inn

Bunter – A female individual who would collect rags or bones

Biddy – A female servant, usually of Irish origin

Calciner – An individual who produced quicklime by burning bones

Carnifex – An individual working as a butcher

Cashmarie – An fishmonger selling fish inland

Couranteer – An individual working as a journalist or newspaper writer

Camerist – A chamber woman or lady's maid

Decretist – An individual with expertise in decretals (the nature of decrees)

Dexter – An individual working as a dyer

Drover – An individual who would drive herds of cattle

Duffer – An individual selling inferior-quality goods, often pretending they were more valuable then they were

Departer – An individual who would separate and refine metals

Earer – An individual working as a ploughman

Eremite – A recluse or hermit

Erite – A heretic

Estafette – An individual working as a mounted courier

Eyer – An individual who made the eyes in needles

Farandman – A traveller or stranger, usually working as a merchant

Farrier – An individual who shoed horses and worked as a horse doctor

Fiscere – A name for a fisherman

Fower – An individual working as a street cleaner

Ganneker – An individual working as an alehouse keeper

Gelder – An individual who castrated animals

Graffer – An individual working as a notary

Gummer – An individual who would enlarge the spaces between the teeth of a saw

Hayward – An individual responsible for guarding the fences or enclosures of the parish and ensuring cattle would not break through

Headborough – An individual working as the parish constable

Hellier / Hillier – An individual working as a slater or tiler

Huckster – An individual retailing small goods in petty shops, or a pedlar

Intendant – An individual in charge of or directing a public or government business

Intelligencer – An individual working as a spy or secret agent

Jagger – An individual working as a fish peddler or carrier

Jerquer – An official of HM Customs who examined ships and ensured that the duty had been paid

Jongleur – A roaming ministrel or entertainer

Justiciar – The head political and judicial officer of the Crown

Keeker – An official responsible for inspecting or overseeing a colliery

Keeler / Keelman – An individual working on a barge known as a keel

Kempster – An individual working as a comber of wool

Knacker – An individual working as a harness maker or saddler

Knoller – An individual working as a bell toller

Lapidary – An artificer who worked in cutting or engraving precious or semi-precious stones

Lattener – An individual working with or in the production of latten (a metal alloy)

Leavelooker – A municipal officer inspecting food selling in markets

Leech – A physician or doctor

Lumper – An individual working as a labourer responsible for unloading cargoes of timber

Manciple – A steward or individual responsible for supplying provisions

Mango – A dealer in slaves

Mealman – An individual dealing in meal or flour

Mudlark – An individual who scavenged in the tidal river banks or sewers

Naperer – An individual responsible for the table linen in a royal household

Nimgimmer – A doctor or physician

Orrery maker – An individual making an orrery (a mechanical model displaying the movement of the earth and the moon)

Ostiary – An individual working as a doorkeeper of a church or monastery

Panter – An individual responsible for the pantry

Paperer – An individual employed to pack newly made needles into papers to bind them

Pargeter – An individual working as an ornamental plasterer

Pelterer – An individual working with animal skins

Pettifogger – A lawyer working in petty or small cases

Phrenologist – An individual assessing someone's character by examining the shape of their cranium

Poller – A hair cutter or barber

Quister – An individual working as a bleacher

Raker – A street cleaner

Ratoner – An individual working as a rat catcher

Rubbisher – An individual working in a quarry and separating the small stones

Sandesman – An envoy, ambassador or messenger

Scavenger – A street cleaner who was employed by the local parish

Schrimpschonger – An artisan who would carve bone or ivory

Seneschal – A high ranking steward for royalty or senior aristocracy

Skepper – A maker of skeps (baskets or hampers)

Spallier / Spalliard – A labourer working in tin-mining usually performing the more menial jobs

Sutler – An individual who sold provisions to soldiers and would reside in garrison towns

Tawer – A manufacturer of white leather

Thirdborough – A petty constable of a township

Tiger – An informal name for a boy working as a groom or pageboy

Tippler – An innkeeper or seller of alcohol

Tipstaff – A sherriff's official or bailiff or constable

Tonsor – Latin word for barber

Topman – A type of seaman

Topsman – The leading drover in charge of cattle

Trusser – An individual responsible for tying and bundling hay

Ulnagar / Alnagar – An official responsible for inspecting the quality of woollen goods

Vaginarius – A sheath or scabbard maker

Venator – A hunter

Verderer – An official of the Royal Forest

Villein – An occupier of land owned by the Lord of the Manor who paid dues to the Lord to be able to occupy it

Vulcan – A blacksmith or ironworker

Wabster / Wobster – A weaver

Wainwright – An individual building wagons

Wantcatcher – An individual catching wants (moles)

Wetter – A person employed in the printing process whose role was to dampen the paper prior to printing

Whacker – Another term for a drover

Willeyer – An individual employed to feed a willey machine (a revolving machine used in the textile industry)

Xylographer – An individual operaring the xylograph machine (a wood engraving machine)

Yeoman – A farmer in possession of his own piece of land

Zitherist – A player of the musical instrument, the zither

One of the major growth areas in family history research techniques is the use of DNA testing to prove genetic connectivity. The tests themselves have been available on the market for a number of years, and now the cost has fallen dramatically whilst the sophistication of the range of tests available has expanded. In addition, the power of the Internet to store and share data has, inevitably, opened up the possibility of sharing test results with other individuals, and a range of online communities has grown up. Furthermore, the creation of control groups using DNA samples from around the world has also made it possible for people to trace their ethnic roots. The collision of science and history is one of the more fascinating spheres of genealogy, and promises to be an area with the greatest potential growth in years to come.

There are various tests available. The most popular are either tests for the Y-chromosome covering the paternal line, which can allow either paternity testing, linkage to a particular haplogroup (a distinct section of the population that shares common Y-chromosome features) or, when results are compared, the number of generations removed from a common ancestor; or mitochondrial DNA testing of the maternal lineage. This allows similar assessments to be made about connectivity to a halpogroup.

Further tests can be used to determine the ethnic origin of an individual, and even to begin mapping human population movements across the globe, provided sufficient numbers of DNA tests are carried out against sample populations. These tests have been around for a number of years, and have frequently been used in these various ways on television.

DNA testing

DNA technology was used to examine athlete
Colin Jackson
's ethnic background for
Who Do You Think You Are?,
and was of enormous help when focusing on the genealogical paper trail. We already knew that his family hailed from the Caribbean, but the proportion of sub-Sahara African DNA in his sample was quite low, being only 55 per cent. It was quite a surprise to discover that 38 per cent of Colin's DNA was of European extraction, which was traced to his Scottish great-grandfather who had a child with his Jamaican housemaid – and even more of a shock to discover that there was 7 per cent native Caribbean blood in his veins
.

There are many companies, both UK and US, that offer DNA tests to individuals, and the range of test options is explained on their websites, depending on whether you want to prove a link between two living relatives (a paternity test, for example) or distant ancestors; an ethnic profile; or connectivity to a haplogroup. Prices vary from company to company, and some of the main ones are EthnoAncestry and Oxford Ancestors in the UK, and Sorenson Genomics in the US (whose test kits, prepared by their subsidiary company Identigene, are used by some of the newly emerging DNA social networking websites run by Ancestry and GeneTree, described in more detail below). Testing
is quick and easy to do, and usually does not need a blood sample. Most require a simple swab sample to be taken from the inside of the mouth, sealed and sent back to the laboratory for analysis. You will then be sent your results in strict confidence; it is then up to you what you choose to do with them.

Just as people were keen to upload and share family trees and pedigrees via sites such as Genes Reunited, Familysearch, Ancestry and My Heritage, new social networking sites are emerging where you can upload your DNA profile, and the growing interest in the subject looks set to revolutionize the way we consider our genetic roots and blood ties with the past.

Amongst the current market leaders are two main platforms, GeneTree and DNA Ancestry (an offshoot of the main Ancestry site). Not only do they encourage you to create a personal profile and upload your DNA test results, but also they offer comparative datasets of genetic samples from around the world – allowing you to plot where your ethnic origins are, and how far back in time your ancestors moved around. Furthermore, they have both created the capacity to upload your family trees, providing researched documentary and historical context to support the scientific results. The key feature of both sites is to draw upon the power of social networking – sites such as Facebook and YouTube have shown how popular online interactivity is these days – and encourage ‘self-connectivity'; individuals who have taken a DNA test are asked to submit their results, place them in their haplogroup, and allow them to be connected with other users via ‘common' genetic ancestors, as well as showing where their original genetic make-up places them over time via technology mapping population movements. However, as with all social network sites, their success depends on numbers of users submitting information in this manner, in this case in terms of both DNA results and supporting family trees.

At present, each of these main sites has its own particular advantages. DNA Ancestry taps into Ancestry's existing worldwide network of research and uploaded family trees, for those who wish to submit their DNA to the site. However, the site has not acquired a DNA sample database against which to compare uploaded results, making ethnic connectivity much harder to achieve until critical mass is gained. By way of contrast, GeneTree has collected several hundred
thousand actual DNA samples from ethnic groups covering 170 countries worldwide, providing a far wider and more detailed DNA test base against which to compare results. This places them as the UK market leader, offering mapping services, personal privacy controls and self-management resources.

Test kits are available from a wide range of companies online. Here are the web addresses of the ones mentioned above:

EthnoAncestry

www.ethnoancestry.com

Identigene

www.dnatesting.com

Oxford Ancestors

www.oxfordancestors.com

Genetic genealogy social networking sites are proliferating online. Here are the ones mentioned above:

GeneTree

www.genetree.com

DNA Ancestry

www.ancestry.co.uk/dna

Other sites and services are appearing, however, so the advice is to shop around, find the site that most suits your needs – or whose interface and upload facilities you are most comfortable with – and sign up. Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to connect to as many as possible, to maximize your chances of finding a genetic match. Most of the sites are free, and contain privacy policies that you should examine carefully before putting personal – and genetic – information online.