Surnames / occupations

[StuartjLee]

Lee is a very common gypsy surname.
I have links to Metcalfe on my family tree via my maternal Aunts. (Yorksire/Northumberland)

Hi
I have the following surnames and occupations in my family tree and i think i have gypsy ancestry.Are any of these common?

Jones,Houghton,Highcock,Lee,Gregson,Hartley,Metcalfe,Whittaker,Baker,Lowe,Walker,Stephenson
 (oxfordshire,Lancashire and Yorkshire)


Cotton weaver,Wool comber,blacksmith,out door labour,tool maker,yeast hawker,iron turner/mechanic,iron broker,marine store dealer,brass finisher,hawker.

[daisydew7]

I recognize the names Lee and Hartley as gypsy names but, at this time I don't know anything specific

[Steve G]

Looks like Johnru was talking quite a while ago now? Before I really realised he may well be long gone, I'd just automatically reached for The Book of Bob and ran those names through it. Not a result entirely lacking in interest 

If Johnru should ever resurface, with an interest, I'll bang up what the book has 

[jnu]

Hi yes its been a while since I posted this . I've seen some of the names in Bobs book which is interesting. Hartley, Metcalfe,Whittaker and Gregson are my ancestors I presume that are Romany, their occupations were Hawkers,Woolcombers, metal brokers and marine store dealers also some of them travelled with a shooting gallery.

[Steve G]

There ye are, John!  Excellent. And ye have / had access to the BOB? Even better. Saves me time 

I'm thinking; Where are Rob G and Romany Knaves, on this? Couple of people there capable of thinking outside the box. That's what, I suspect, we could do with here 

[youngtug]

Woolcombing was an apprenticed trade,  toolmaker that was mentioned earlier is also. Therefore neither trade is likely to be taken up by a traveller.

[sallyyorks]

Woolcombing was an apprenticed trade,  toolmaker that was mentioned earlier is also. Therefore neither trade is likely to be taken up by a traveller.

Probably not someone travelling no, but these trades might have been taken up by Romany who settled during industrialisation. Especially in the north of England
I know a Romany family who were originally scrap metal brokers in the Leeds area but some of them were also coal miners and mill workers.

[youngtug]

The original post and subsequent ones questioned the jobs listed [ Cotton weaver,Wool comber,blacksmith,out door labour,tool maker,yeast hawker,iron turner/mechanic,iron broker,marine store dealer,brass finisher,hawker.] and whether they would be likely to be undertaken by travellers. I would think that any trades entailing a 7 year apprenticeship, almost certainly in one place would not be.
Of the list wool comber, blacksmith, toolmaker and iron turner/mechanic would be the ones needing an apprenticeship, and to mind not fitting a travelling life style.
Cotton weaver, depending upon when and where, could be an apprenticed trade.
Of course, anyone can stay in one place and take jobs that do not involve travelling, sometimes for a short period of their lives, other times for life.

[sallyyorks]

The original post and subsequent ones questioned the jobs listed [ Cotton weaver,Wool comber,blacksmith,out door labour,tool maker,yeast hawker,iron turner/mechanic,iron broker,marine store dealer,brass finisher,hawker.] and whether they would be likely to be undertaken by travellers. I would think that any trades entailing a 7 year apprenticeship, almost certainly in one place would not be.
Of the list wool comber, blacksmith, toolmaker and iron turner/mechanic would be the ones needing an apprenticeship, and to mind not fitting a travelling life style.
Cotton weaver, depending upon when and where, could be an apprenticed trade.
Of course, anyone can stay in one place and take jobs that do not involve travelling, sometimes for a short period of their lives, other times for life.

I wouldn't call ANY mill work in the late industrial period particularly 'skilled' and certainly not the kind of jobs that would need a '7 Year apprenticeship'. I learned to operate an industrial loom in a matter of weeks !
'Wool combing' might have been a skill before it was industrialised, but that was before mechanisation.
Metal working was actually a job Romany were known for at one time. There are still many Gypsy Blacksmiths in eastern/Balkan European countries. Copper working too and metal reclaiming (scrap).
Names and occupations can help determine if someone was from a Romany family but I think you also need to keep an open mind, especially in areas where people had to adapt from being rural to being urban/industrial. If pegs, pots and pans,umbrellas or chairs were being mass produced, then the work for a tinker, knife grinder, umbrella mender or chair mender would dry up.
Everyone had to adapt to mass production and industrialisation, and that would have included many of the rural Romany too