Definitions of Irish occupations

[Jemilla]

On my Great Grandfathers death certificate for being in Cork it states that his occupation was 'Traveller'.

When I was asked a family member if there is a connection there to the travelling community, he said that this grandfather was a travelling butcher, who would work for some months in Ireland and some months in England as a butcher?!

Seems like a strange occupation, and surely if he was a businessman his occupation would have been travelling businessman.

Was this type of work a regular occurrence for Irish people from that area? Or perhaps I'm not being told the whole truth?!

Is it certain that a registrar would put traveller on a travellers death certificate?

[aghadowey]

Traveller as an occupation efers to anyone who travelled in connection with their job (anything from a saleman to someone like you butcher). If you put 'traveller' as the occupation in the 1901 or 1911 census you'll see a huge variety in birthplaces and circumstances.

[gaffy]

There are lots of 1800s / 1900s references to travelling butchers in the British Newspaper Archives and it is definitely not just an Irish phenomenon.  Some of the references explicitly describe them selling meat from carts.