Archaic occupation 1700s-1900s
What was a lamplighter?
A lamplighter went round at dusk and dawn lighting and extinguishing the town's oil or gas street lamps, trimming wicks and mantles as he went. Gas companies and town corporations kept lamplighters on wage books, another payroll trail beyond the census. You will find the term in British and American records, mostly 1700s-1900s.
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FAQs
What is a lamplighter in modern terms?+
No equivalent; electric lighting ended it. 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-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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