Genealogy Chat

Just received my great great great grandmothers death certificate and it says her husband was a `CORK CUTTER?`. She died in 1850 aged 21 and they lived in York. Any ideas? Vanessa

Yes.....they would cut cork!! (Sorry!)........for anything that needed it......think gaskets for machinery were made from cork and lots of other industrial applications. Merry

Thanks Merry. I was trying to think what they would use cork for in 1850. Being a person who likes a tipple now and again i though corks for wine.(HIC..HIC..) Vanessa

For fishing net floats and floats for fly fishing (says hubby)..... I always think of wine too, but it would depend how much bottling happened in this country! Merry

True Merry. I never thought of fishing floats! But a man would know that! Vanessa

CORK CUTTER down as occupation could be anything it just ment that they worked with CORK, Roy

My Gx4 grandfather was a Corkcutter. Here's some info about the trade taken from a book of trades that I have... Corkcutting...noted by some historians as one of the blackest and dirtiest of trades. The imported cork would be cut with an exceedingly sharp knife (of unusual shape) and made into stoppers for bottles. The corks would then be sold by the gross. Owners of their own cork cutting businesses did fairly well at making a decent living, but workers would receive a small price per gross for their labour. Also, corkcutting was one of the few trades that entited the men to a free 'pass' into another county (apparenty many trades required permission to leave one county and enter another to work). I was told this by someone who wrote an article for one of the family tree magazines and she has compiled (or is compiling still) a list of all corkcutters from around the UK. She mentions that some corkcutters made shoes! (Cork shoes?) If you go onto RootsChat website and type Cork Cutter into the search bar it will bring up a whole thread to do with Corkcutters etc.

Thankyou Athena. How very intresting. I will certainly go onto the website you have mentioned. Getting a pass to go from one county to another? This sounds intresting. Could explain somethings that don`t add up. Thanks again Vanessa

Yes, you'll find it very interesting reading through all the posts on that thread (it's about 7 pages long now!!). Re the pass to another county - she explains that you were not supposed to travel to another county back then without having a pre-arranged job - but she has evidence to show that corkcutting profession provided some kind of travel ticket and introduction to masters in another town. I've not investigated any further myself, to be honest. I am going to order a back issue of her article that appeared in Practical Family History in July last year I believe. Might be worth your while getting a copy of it, too, at some point.

Sorry for not getting back to you soon Anthena. Busy getting ready for work. It is indeed intresting that they needed this proffesion to go from one county to another. That may also help me in tracking down where he disappeared to after his wifes death. They married in 1847 in Ripon, Had a son in Selby in 1849 then she died in york in 1850. He then left his child in the care of another family and seems to have disappeared. This info will help me on the search. I will also order a back copy to read up on this. Thank you again Anthena. Vanessa