Genealogy Chat

My husbands grandfather was a journeyman plasterer. He worked for the council and when they didn't have work for him he would be sub'contracted out to another firm. On the 1901 census his father was a plasterer and his six sons were journeyman plasterers. My husbands father explained it to me when I didn't understand as even in the 1930's when he started work it still worked like that.

I think a lot depended on what opportunities arose - if she was the daughter of a shoemaker and showed some aptitude for the craft, then her father could apprentice her to himself, at no cost. There were several female blacksmiths in the early 1920s that I came across, and many of my female relations were apprenticed to Tailors and became Tailoresses, one is listed in a Trade Directory of 1921 as a Master Tailor, so presumably 'got her papers'. OC

Christine , you are correct. My brother, still alive, is a journeyman plumber. This means he was an aprentice to his trade and holds the papers.

I think that women were in far more different trades than we imagine. Two elderly splinster ancestors of mine ran a plumbing business in the 1780's, and one of my widows took over her husband's carrier business and ran the horse and cart!!

Trish sorry for the hijack but..... Chris - thank you for yor post the 'journee' re journeyman now makes sense of all my bricklayers !!!! Cheers ladies :0)))))))))) Jenx

I'd forgotten that ''daily rate'' thing... It would make sense, because then it would be ''Journée-man'' - ''Journée'' being a day. Christine

A journeyman was employed by others rather than working on their own client base.

I think it means that they are qualified in their trade and they now work on a daily rate basis for someone else. Dea x

What exactly is a journeyman? My g.g.granda was a 'lithographic photographer/journeyman'

I've not seen this before, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible! Have you considered the info might have been written on the wrong line, or maybe the person was actually a man??!!! Lots of my 1841 census records have the ages in the wrong columns! Who is it? Can you give the details? Merry

Sounds like cobblers to me! ;-) Not really - my ancestor Mary Ann Fritz was a dealer in old china and is on record as having bid at Christies at a time when it was meant to be the domain of men only. I don't think the rules were as rigid as we would imagine.

I can't think of anything else that J could be short for. I don't know how common it was for women to achieve this - it meant someone who was competent, but didn't have apprentices. There are quite a few women I've found who took over their husband's trade when the husband died. nell

Have just searched the 1841 Census and came across a female, aged 25, whose occupation was shoemaker - against this word was the initial 'J' . Also found this on other entries but these were for males. Would this stand for Journeyman and was it usual for women to gain this status?