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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Earth.Traveller on Tuesday 14 July 09 20:06 BST (UK)
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Would appreciate any help to figure out what my ancestor worked at.
Also attached another handwriting sample from the same document.
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He was a farmer
;)
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I think it's Tanner, looking at other capital T's.
Didy
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Hmm see what you mean Didy - tricky one!
:D
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Farmer. The first letter has a bar that the T lacks.
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A little background: my gggrandpa, Andrew, was born 1833 in Rathangan, County Kildare, Ireland. He was married in 1855 and had about five children. Sometime in the 1860s he and his family moved to Dublin. They lived at various addresses in the North Strand area (Dublin north inner city) - an unlikely place to find a farmer! Andrew died in St. Patrick's House an 'old people's home' on South Circular Road, Dublin in 1915.
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Interesting!
I wonder if admission records survive for the old people's home? They just might mention his occupation.
Tanner's works weren't very popular and nobody would want to live near one due to the smell but I guess that didn't stop them operating in cities,where there would be a plentiful supply of the "necessary" (urine!)
Kind regards, Arranroots ;)
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I first thought 'tanner' and then I saw the 1911 census and it said 'farmer'. However, he was already in St. Patrick's House at that time, so he did not fill out the form himself. So an inner city farmer he probably was. Can't imagine it was that easy, living in terraced houses with no gardens! ::)
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I think he put "farmer" because that's what he thought of himself as. Perhaps his dream was always to go back to his birthplace and even in old age his view of himself was a farmer from Rathangan.
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Just to throw another spanner in..... how about "Farrier" ? :)
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i think it is tanner
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I too think the occupation was Tanner, for which he probably had to serve an apprenticeship. I have an ancestor that moved from a small village tannery in the 1790's due to its closure to one in Glasgow and I've found a picture online of his new workplace. I used to see an inner city large old tannery in my youth as I crossed the River Hull to work. Possibly Dublin imported & exported hides via the River Liffey.
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A quick google of Dublin tanneries is worthwhile, and you may be able to consult directories for tanneries operating in the localities where he lived.
"Dublin's many tanneries required running water in which to soak piles of uncured leather. It was left steeping in vats or `black pits' and was mixed with layers of oak bark which cured the material. The name Blackpitts remains though no trace of any pit or tannery survives. The tanneries were undoubtedly dirty and smelly and those who worked in them must have been tough. Leather was softened or beaten by people called curriers, or gurriers."
Didy.