Archaic occupation 1600s-1800s
What was a mealman?
A mealman dealt in oatmeal and flour, buying from the mills and selling to bakers, shops, and households. Meal here is ground grain, nothing to do with cooked meals; corn dealer and corn chandler cover much the same ground. You will find the term in English records, mostly 1600s-1800s.
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FAQs
What is a mealman in modern terms?+
A flour merchant. 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-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.
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