1891 census entry occupation?

[ValJJJ]

Can anyone decide what was originally written against Elizabeth King please?

It says nurse then another short word, scribbled out later and annotated with sick.

She was in the household of a mother with a one-week old baby. So I would have expected her to be called a monthly nurse if helping with the new mother and baby. Perhaps there were other phrases used then?

This links in with https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=896650.0

[ValJJJ]

Sorry that’s not very sharp from my phone so I’ll make a better copy from the computer.

[ValJJJ]

Better image.

[emeltom]

Nurse.

[heywood]

I think could be ‘Serv’ - looks like ‘v’ at the end

[Kiltaglassan]

Agree with emeltom..................nurse

[heywood]

It’s the scribbled over word that ValJJJ wants. Nurse is mentioned in the opening post.

[BumbleB]

Not positive what the word is, but I'm pretty sure that it is NOT "Serv" - look at the entry immediately below, plus at least two other entries on the same page, for the letter "S".

[JenB]

Can anyone decide what was originally written against Elizabeth King please?

It says nurse then another short word, scribbled out later and annotated with sick.

I wonder if the scribbled out word might possibly have been 'dom[estic]'?

This is from the dictionary of occupational terms (admittedly based on a later census)
nurse, domestic ; children's nurse, mother's help, nursemaid, nurse sewing maid
takes charge of children or babies; washes, dresses them and takes them out; prepares any special foods for them; sews, mends, darns, cleans nursery, and does children's washing if required.

(The word nurse was added later by someone extracting information from the census for statistical purposes.)