Genealogy Chat

The 'hd' bit means 'hand' - another word for worker. Christina

From the same site: Doffer 'Worked in the spinning mills, replenishing the empty bobbins on the looms.' Cardroomer 'Worker in the carding room of cotton/woollen mills' Card Maker '1) Made the combs and implements for carding (combing) wool 2) Made the loom-cards used by Jacquard looms in the weaving of figured fabrics' There is more information on this site - it's well worth a look. Tim

The 'self acting minder' rang a bell, as this had come up on a thread a couple of months ago. I got the following definition from http://rmhh(.)co.uk/occup/index.html (found through Google): Self acting minder / Self action minder 'Watched and minded the 'Self Acting Mule' - the name of a multi thread spinning machine. The original Mule was hand operated and was invented by Samuel Crompton of Bolton in 1779. It was made self-acting by Richard Roberts in 1830. ' Tim

You might even find that the house was built for or by the mill owner to house some of the workforce. The mills produced cotton,and some had weaving sheds that turned the thread into finished cloth,worth a google i would think,you might find something for the mills in the area at the time. Glen

They did live in Preston, so cotton is probably it.

Sounds like textile industry to me - carding is a process isn't it - in the card or carding room? Doffing also a manufacturing process, I think. Is it Lancashire? jay

Hang on,there not jobs in a cotton mill are they. Machine minder? Weaving machines often used cards to produce a pattern,and used cards as an early form of 'programme' to tell the machine the pattern. Glen

No idea,but they must be worth at least 3 ag labs each.LOL Seriously though,any clues in the occupations of the neighbours?Is the census taken in town or in a village. Glen

i have the following words in occupation in census: Cot self acting minder, Card rm. hd. cot, doffer cotton does anyone know what kind of jobs these are???? kelly