There are plenty of occupations that no longer exist. Genealogists who have family trees that include ancestors from the Victorian era in London may not understand what, exactly, that person did for a living. Either we no longer have a need for that job, or, we call it something different today.
What were your ancestors employed as? It might have been a job that has disappeared between when your ancestor was alive and today. Or, it could be possible that the job still exists, but has been given a new title.
Some of these terms relate to health care. An “accoucheur” was a man who assisted women in childbirth. If it was a woman doing the assisting, she would have been called an “accoucheuse”. Today, we would call the people who do this job a “midwife”. A “grace wife” was another Victorian term for “midwife”.
An “asylum attendant” was a nurse whose job it was to look after “lunatics” in a “lunatic asylum”. Today, we would never refer to a hospital that was giving care to people who have a mental illness as a “lunatic asylum”. Therefore, the medically trained personnel who treat the patients in the hospital today would simply be called “nurse”. Back then, a “nurse” might also have been called the “attendant on sick”.
A “mayer” was the word once used for “physician”. A Head Nurse who was in charge of a ward in an institution was called a “Matron”, or “Institute Matron”. A “medicus” was a person who was a doctor and used leeches as a form of treatment. You would want to avoid the “mountebank”. That was the term used to refer to a person who sold ineffectual patent medicines. This term was synonymous with “snake oil salesman”.
People who had pet birds in Victorian London would need to visit the “Groundsel & Chickweed Seller” fairly frequently. That was the job title of the person who sold common weeds that were used as food for pet birds. Back then, a “guinea pig” was not a cute, fuzzy, animal that you found in a pet store. A “guinea pig” was a person who was unattached, or who was roving. This person did odd jobs, and charged people a fee, (which was usually a guinea).
A “pupil teacher” was another name for “school teacher”. This makes some sense today, because most people know that another word for “student” is “pupil”. What was a “preceptress”? That was the Victorian term for “school mistress”, (in other words, a teacher who happened to be female). A “pedascule” was the term used for a “school master” (or a teacher who happened to be male).
Image by Daniel Hall on Flickr