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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: CelticMom on Sunday 23 December 18 14:57 GMT (UK)

Title: What is the occupation?
Post by: CelticMom on Sunday 23 December 18 14:57 GMT (UK)
I originally thought it was bookseller, it looks like bookseller.

But the year later he is working on the docks. Could it be dock something instead?

Thanks,
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: rosie99 on Sunday 23 December 18 15:11 GMT (UK)
The first letter B is the same as the one in Bennett above. 
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: CelticMom on Sunday 23 December 18 15:20 GMT (UK)
The first letter B is the same as the one in Bennett above.

Yeah it definitely looks like bookseller doesn’t it? A year later he is working on the docks as a miner . Very strange and it is all definitely the same person.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: BumbleB on Sunday 23 December 18 15:21 GMT (UK)
I'd go with your original assumption = Bookseller.

Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: CelticMom on Sunday 23 December 18 15:29 GMT (UK)
So when he marries in 1821 he is a bookseller, when his son is born in 1822 he is a miner, then when he daughter is born in 1823 he is a stationer (which relates to bookseller), odd to have a big change in a year, don’t you think and then change back?

I suppose maybe he tried something else and didn’t like it.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: BumbleB on Sunday 23 December 18 15:37 GMT (UK)
When you need the money, you do whatever you have to  :-\
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: barryd on Sunday 23 December 18 17:12 GMT (UK)
Where did they marry/live? An easier transition from occupation to occupation in London rather than lets say Nottingham.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: Rena on Sunday 23 December 18 18:07 GMT (UK)
Years ago I found something similar, but can't quote the exact information due to the computer crashing and original data lost.

My ancestor was a William Speight of Swinton, Wath Upon Dearne, West Yorkshire near the site of a then famous pottery. He was a miller in the baptism/marriage records of his daughter.  Then by chance I came across an FH site which showed "William Speight of Swinton" when single was living at an address some 30 miles away near Leeds where he worked for a year as a miner.

I think the "of Swinton" meant that the funds of the Swinton Parish would look after him if needs be. 
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: barryd on Sunday 23 December 18 18:17 GMT (UK)
By coincidence rather a possible relationship I have the Speight name in my distant line. Cumberland, Northumberland and Durham. Shows the name has a Northern connection.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: dobfarm on Tuesday 25 December 18 10:17 GMT (UK)
Looking at to compare the 'o to h' in Johns is the same as the 'o to k' in book- therefore not Bockseller or Bocksiller or Bockciller
and not Dock
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: BushInn1746 on Tuesday 25 December 18 11:23 GMT (UK)
So when he marries in 1821 he is a bookseller, when his son is born in 1822 he is a miner, then when he daughter is born in 1823 he is a stationer (which relates to bookseller), odd to have a big change in a year, don’t you think and then change back?

I suppose maybe he tried something else and didn’t like it.

Hello

I see Bockseller derived from Boc. See the first e in Bennett is almost straight

Boc and Bock is of Anglo-saxon and Old English origin. I have also seen it referred to as Germanic A-S (old Anglo-Saxon).

It can be linked to 'bec' which means beech, as in wood.

However, Boc is also linked to Books and Writing. Also gospel, deeds, charters & conveyances.
Bocfell, Parchment and Vellum ['bookfell'].

Bockseller, an old spelling of Bookseller.

A Stationer - also the seller of blank Legal documents to Solicitors, Legal, Business Stationery and blank column lined Accounts and Survey books.

 -----------

boc Book and/or blank Writing Book and Document (blank documents and blank column lined books for Legal, Accounting and Surveying purposes)

boc also linked to Learning and Library

boc linked to the Bible and biblical books.

Mark
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: Rena on Tuesday 25 December 18 23:42 GMT (UK)
By coincidence rather a possible relationship I have the Speight name in my distant line. Cumberland, Northumberland and Durham. Shows the name has a Northern connection.

If I'm following the right family, I'm back in the 1500s and still in Yorkshire in a place called "Darfield".
Since seeing your posting, I'm thinking that now more records are available, than when I followed this trail nearly 20 years ago, I might just need to check my facts.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: AMBLY on Wednesday 26 December 18 08:18 GMT (UK)
I wonder if he was both - set up his front room as a Booksellers/Stationer which his wife might have run while he was off being a miner for his main income?

I have seen that sort of thing before - not those 2 occupations  - I can't recall off hand in my tree:
Grocer Shop/Dock Labourer or Licensed Innkeeper/Blacksmith - something on those lines.

Cheers
AMBLY

Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: CelticMom on Thursday 27 December 18 18:48 GMT (UK)
Thanks everyone for you replies. A lot to to consider,

He was living at the docks in devonport in Devon. Two occupations could definitely be plausible.

Sadly he is deceased by the 1841 census. But he definitely seems to stick to  stationer occupatio apart from the one reference to being a miner and a possible military record I have found for him.

I’ve been trying to trace where he came from. The military record states Redruth, Cornwall and I have found a baptism to coincide with that, but unfortunately don’t know for definite whether the military record is him.
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: bjwil on Thursday 27 December 18 20:47 GMT (UK)
Is it possible that the third and fourth letters in "Books. . . " are not "o k" but rather "c k"?  I'm looking at the two "o"s; they're not linked.  Perhaps that's just a characteristic of the handwriting at that time and place but it caught my attention.  Of course, my theory likely just muddied the water for you (back seller? ;) so I shall herewith wish you well with this mystery and crawl back under my rock. 
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: Maiden Stone on Friday 28 December 18 22:39 GMT (UK)
A year later he is working on the docks as a miner . Very strange and it is all definitely the same person.
Was there a mine near the docks? Could the occupation have been mariner?
Title: Re: What is the occupation?
Post by: Maiden Stone on Friday 28 December 18 23:12 GMT (UK)
I wonder if he was both - set up his front room as a Booksellers/Stationer which his wife might have run while he was off being a miner for his main income?

I have seen that sort of thing before - not those 2 occupations  - I can't recall off hand in my tree:
Grocer Shop/Dock Labourer or Licensed Innkeeper/Blacksmith - something on those lines
I have examples of that for several generations in one line. 18thC they combined butcher and innkeeper because neither was a full-time occupation in a small town off the beaten track. When the town prospered and stagecoaches came, the inn returned a healthy profit and provided employment for father and several sons. Later, in 19thC, the sons, living in a larger town were at various times innkeepers, corn merchants/millers, shopkeepers and bookkeepers. One was a shopkeeper and bacon curer on 1841 census. In 1851 he worked at the docks and his wife was a shopkeeper. He never had the same occupation twice. A brother was a clerk at the coal wharf in one census and a provision merchant in another.