What is the most interesting occupation in your family tree? (#1: locked)

[joboy]

Got a few odd ones;
Bacon Curer.
Drysalter.
and from the 1901 census the occupation states;
"Keeps a Mangle"
joboy

[Cecilia]

I  haven't got too much information as yet what jobs the family did, but I know I had shoemakers, pyrotechnists, furrier, and a World Champion Heavyweight Boxer, Bombadier Bily Wells.   And there was me thinking I might have to odd Highwayman or Pirate!   

[sandie]

I seem to have a right boring lot -

Domestic Servants, ironer/washer, factory hand, labourers, roper makers and a lighterman, although I'm beginning to wonder about the last.

Sandie

[Rebecca Steele]

Cecilia,

Seeing your post remided me of something.

A few years ago, my boyfriends Auntie started doing her family tree. All was going well, until she came across a Highwayman, and was so embarrassed she stopped doing it there and then!!!

[Paul E]

Marry him, chui - then any of your children can claim descendence!  That would be  for them, wouldn't it?

Paul

[Rebecca Steele]

it certainly would Paul! Unfortunately, its an Auntie by marriage though, but I suppose we could claim him!

We are actually engaged, so I suppose I should call him my Fiancee instead of my boyfriend!

[Mobo]

 

Quite a lot of my ancestors were 'Hatters' - and it wasn't until I started doing genealogy, that I discovered just where the term 'Mad' Hatter came from.

To make a finished hat, especially with the cheaper furs, Hatters brushed a solution of a mercury compound, usually mercurous nitrate, onto the fur to roughen the fibres and make them mat easier, a process called carrotting, so called because it made the fur turn orange.

The fibres were shaved off the skin and turned into felt, then immersed in a boiling acid solution to thicken and harden it.  The finishing processes included steaming the hat to shape and ironing it.  During this time, the Hatters, working in poorly ventilated workshops, would inhale the mercury compounds and accumulate the metal in their bodies.

We now know that mercury is a cumulative poison that causes kidney and brain damage, resulting in trembling, loosening of teeth, loss of co-ordination, and slurred speech, irritability, loss of memory, depression, anxiety, and other personality changes. Thus the term 'mad' hatter syndrome.

I've always known I was a bit scatty - too much mercury in the blood I 'spect

 

[beansoup]

Not sure if this one is classed as "interesting" or "gross" .... we've today found a rellie whose occupation on 1901 census is " Dealer in sheep's feet " .... blech!

[mwelsh50]

How about this>
In 1861, one of my ancestors was a 64-year-old 'molecatcher' in Cambridgeshire.

It was quite a specialised occupation - moles don't come up to the surface too often!   

That's got to be one of your more unusual ones!