Archaic occupation 1600s-1900s
What was a lighterman?
A lighterman carried cargo on lighters, the flat barges that shuttled goods between moored ships and the wharves. On the Thames the Company of Watermen and Lightermen bound apprentices for centuries, and its registers are indexed by name. You will find the term in English 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 lighterman in modern terms?+
A port barge operator. 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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