Archaic occupation 1700s-1800s
What was an accoucheur?
An accoucheur was a man who attended women in childbirth, the male counterpart of the midwife and the forerunner of the obstetrician. The word is French and carried a fashionable air; town directories list accoucheurs among physicians and surgeons. You will find the term in British and American records, mostly 1700s-1800s.
Hit a term like this in a record you are working on? AncestorIQ reads the record and explains terms like this in context. See how Deep Research works. Stuck on the ancestor as well as the wording? Start with how to work a genealogy brick wall.
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is an accoucheur in modern terms?+
An obstetrician. Treat the match as a guide rather than a swap: tools and markets changed, so read the title against the record's own date (1700s-1800s).
Why do census occupation columns use words nobody says now?+
Enumerators wrote down whatever the household told them, spelled by ear, and local trade slang went straight onto the form. Directories, apprenticeship papers, and wills often carry the fuller wording for the same person.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
Stop translating old records by hand.
AncestorIQ reads the record and explains terms like this in context: the occupation column, the cause on the certificate, the clause in the will. Add one ancestor and let Deep Research do the reading.
No credit card needed. Your tree stays yours.
