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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: ajf101 on Monday 02 December 19 12:30 GMT (UK)
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Hi sleuths,
I've got the record of marriage banns and I am stuck deciphering the profession - which is the one piece of information I am most keen on getting out of this!
Any help gratefully received. My understanding is that his work at this time was related to trade with Newfoundland, so merchant/sailing/etc. But struggling to work out what this could be; even found a list of professions but nothing seems to line up. I think it begins F and ends "er" but stuck for the middle. The other text we know:
- John Mortimer
- Bachelor (with profession crossed off underneath)
- ???
- Redland
- John Mortimer
- Fuller
- Emma Churchward
- Spinster
- Redland
- James Churchward
- Mariner
Many thanks for any help you can provide!
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Traveller?
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Yes I see Traveller too
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Thanks both. That option hadn't crossed my mind since I was thinking specifically of professions. Did "traveller" have any specific meaning in those days?
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I was thinking along the lines of Traveling Salesman?
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"Commercial Traveller: generic term meaning Hawker, Pedlar, travelling trader."
https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/glossary/Dictionary-of-Old-Occupations-jobs-beginning-C8.html
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Ah! Perfect. He once appeared in a Newfoundland directory as a "pedlar" to this all lines up perfectly. Thank you so much!
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Was he the one who is down as Foreman in Corn Trade in the 1871? He and Emma b. Devon, 7 children b Canada and youngest b. Somerset
Cambridge Terrace, Bedminster
RG10/2510/18/28
Gadget
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The 1871 is the family. The youngest, Mary, registered Bedminster, 1879, mmn Churchward.
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Yep that's the chap, although I reckon "corn trade" is a transcription error and it's actually "cork trade". I've got a reasonably good picture of him, but my question has always been "what took him to Newfoundland in the first place?" When back in Bristol, after this brief stint of cork work, he ended up working for CT Bennett & Co, Newfoundland merchants, and living above their offices in Queen Sq.
He was in Newfoundland before this 1855 marriage - I have him in the Freemasons' records in St John's in 1849, and witnessing a marriage in 1853. He doesn't appear in the 1841 or 1851 censuses in England so I assume he disappeared on his travels age 18 or earlier (b. 1823).
He seems to have named two of his daughters - Elizabeth Lash and Laura Gertrude Ayre - after two large baking firms in St John's (Lash's and Ayre's), presumably as some kind of patronage. He was also involved in business with a JN Finlay and were shipping goods around Newfoundland by sea. And hotfooted it back to England in 1869 shortly after suing someone in the St John's courts.
All these nuggets but no real strong picture of what he was up to originally!
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Hi and welcome to Rootschat, May I ask where you accessed the Freemason's Records for St. John's please. My Grandpa was a Freemason in St. John's Nfld from the late 1890s and I have a photo of him in his regalia, but not sure which Lodge he was a member of. I approached the Grand Lodge of Newfoundland and Labrador a few years ago but didn't get a reply.
Carol
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Hi Treetotal, the "United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921" on Ancestry includes foreign lodges, including St John's: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60620/
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Thanks for that, much appreciated.
Carol