Archaic occupation 1600s-1900s
What was a compositor?
A compositor set printing type by hand, assembling each line letter by letter from the case ready for the press. It was a literate, apprenticed trade with strong unions, so apprenticeship and union records add detail census lines lack. You will find the term in British and American records, mostly 1600s-1900s.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is a compositor in modern terms?+
A typesetter. Treat the match as a guide rather than a swap: tools and markets changed, so read the title against the record's own date (1600s-1900s).
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.
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