Indeed. My second great grandfather was a cork cutter as was his brother. The rest of the siblings mostly did water type stuff, not completely unrelated I guess. Seamen, Canal boats etc. The cork cutters moved between Scotland and England. Now I know that the wood was mostly imported into England from Portugal this makes sense. They were in Westgate, Hull, Runcorn, Liverpool. All the big port areas which figures. The cork would be processed and shipped out again. As 'journeymen' they would travel there for a time to work. I guess a lot of corks went back to Scotland for whisky! I'm still tracking their movements, they dropped kids everywhere which is helpful for research I suppose. Someone's done a pretty good historical breakdown of the profession on Geni.
https://www.geni.com/projects/Cork-Cutters/4500569Dear All,
My g-g-grandfather was a cork cutter. I've never been totally sure what that involves, but making stoppers for bottles and so forth would have been involved, I'm sure.
In about half a dozen references to his occupation, from census records, birth and marriage certificates of his children, he is always a cork cutter. To my surprise, on the most recent acquisition, another birth certificate of a child, he is a "Tobacconist (Master)". This is only 5 months after the 1861 census, in which he is still a cork cutter. Unless the apprenticeship for a master tobacconist was very short (and he subsequently returned to cutting cork!), I presume that there must be some link between these two professions. Googling doesn't show any obvious link.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Tim
