Occupations in OPRs

[heymarky]

Most of the OPRs I've found gave the occupation of the Father / Husband.

My ggg and gggg grandfather's were both curriers (tanners).

It occurred to me that if any of my candidates for ggggg grandfather were also curriers I could feel a little more confident about who it probably was.

Unfortunately, after trying a few, none have occupations listed!

The records I'm looking at are back in the 1770s - 1790s in Ayr and Glasgow. Were occupations not listed further back or in certain areas?

As always, thanks for any help!

- Mark

[Russell]

Hi Mark

I don't know if there was consistency across Scotland but in my experience from Ayrshire OPRs the landed gentry were usually recorded as Mr or by the name of their estate; families of standing in the community (i.e. with a bit of status and worth) were often recorded with their occupation such as merchant, miller, carpenter, grocer.
Farmers often had both occupation and the name of the farm recorded. This was because there could be several farming families within an area all with the same surname and occupation. Ordinary labourers and day workers rarely had their occupation noted probably because they could turn their hand to a variety of everyday work rather than have a specific trade.
The exception to this was in the mining villages where the individual's specific job may be mentioned to differentiate between those who worked underground (at high risk and respected by their communities) and those who carried out the less risky surfacemen's tasks.
Some OPR entries give an indication of the family standing within their community.

Russell