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Yes, bjh, something to do with shoes - and apparently not that ancient an occupation. I don't know exactly what a wurt heeler does - was hoping someone here would know! I have a relative who was a wurt heeler before WW2 and I found a 1950 classified ad "Boot trade: First class wurt heeler wanted".
When my relative joined the RAAF (Australia) in WW2 he applied to work in the boot-making department, but was knocked back because his wurt heeling experience didn't make him well rounded enough for making boots. He still got into the RAAF but had a more general job at an aerodrome. At the end of the war he went back to wurt heeling!
How about -
ANKLE BEATER ?
About WURT HEELER, a specialist in shoe heels? Maybe even a specific type of heel?
Found this on the national library of Australia website: 23 Mar 1932 - Advertising - Trove
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I know what an ANKLE BITER is. ---->Urban Dictionary: ankle-biter
I found out from an obituary that my great grandmother (1875-1949) was a cook in a logging camp. She also made black ash baskets and quill boxes. I knew about the baskets because I inherited a few but did not know about the logging camp cook and the quill boxes.
Coincidentally I have collected both black ash baskets and quill boxes since I was in college, which was several decades before I knew that we had a basket maker in the family. I think my collection is why I was chosen to get them when my grandmother passed away as it was thought I would take good care of them vs. those with no interest who might stash them in an attic. Unfortunately no quill boxes came my way. Maybe one day I'll find one of hers on ebay. However, I have no idea if she signed them.
I also have a sargier and master carpenter who came to New France (Canadian coastal/US area around the Great Lakes) in 1658 and became an indentured tenant farmer.
Most of my male ancestors census occupations are fishermen and farmers. Also farm labor and general farmer works on own account. Although one who is listed as a farmer is also a carpenter as there is documented evidence in a bishop's diary in 1858 of him and his wife donating land for a church and a petition against it being there. The same diary speaks of him as a carpenter and the bishop providing him the supplies to build the church.
The women's occupations are often listed as at home, housewife, keeping house or house work. They likely had other occupations like my great grandmother above but the census taker likely found housewife an easy answer.
Unfortunately the records for the 1890 punch card census aren't very good for our family as the original written records for our area burned up in a fire. The punch cards survived but the way they work doesn't give you all the good details like the original notes. I had no idea they were using this type of system back then and found the history of early punch/computer cards very interesting as I used to use them myself in the 1970s/80s. Hollerith 1890 Census Tabulator
I cheated and looked up ANKLE BEATER because no one has any idea. For some of the hard ones, we're probably going to have to look them up. But it can be a learning experience.
An ankle beater is a young person who helps drive the cattle to market.
Okay, for whatever reasons we've bogged down. I have a nerdy interest in old jobs so will post here from time to time. Others are welcome to chime in. I just ask that we leave out the unfortunate numerous references to prostitutes. Someone brought that up. I regret acknowledging it. Then others had to mention it too. Maybe that's where we derailed. It's a fact of life such things have happened, do and will. We don't need to go on about it. From this point forward let's keep this thread PG-13 please.
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Onward:
Anyone remember Bartleby the SCRIVENER, a Herman Melville short story you may have read for school? Or not. A scrivener was also called a copyist. They had to copy in longhand script any pages that needed duplicates, triplicates, etc. They often worked in law offices, businesses, and practically any bureaucracy. Bob Crathchit in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" was a scrivener, clerk (pronounced clark), copyist, whatever you'd call it. They often had really good, almost artistic handwriting. Mimeographs and Xerox put them out of business a long time ago.
I was working in a white collar office situation when I first ran into the "tie maker" profession among my 1890s east Texas families. It didn't take me long to figure out the census taker did not mean silk neckties.
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