Archaic occupation medieval-1900s
What was a farrier?
A farrier shod horses and, before veterinary surgeons, treated their ailments too; the census lists farriers wherever there were horses. Shoeing smith means the same work. Army records use farrier as a rank in cavalry and artillery units. You will find the term in British, American, and Irish records, mostly medieval-1900s.
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FAQs
What is a farrier in modern terms?+
A farrier; the doctoring went to vets. Treat the match as a guide rather than a swap: tools and markets changed, so read the title against the record's own date (medieval-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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