Fish Hawkers

[Dolgellau]

I have had a lot of “food for thought” on a topic about pot hawkers on this board so I thought I might throw open a thread about the other hawkers in my family  - Fish Hawkers.

Are there any others who have fish hawkers in their tree? What difficulties do you have in tracing them? What alternative records do you research? Where did they get their fish from? How far away from port did they sell? etc

My great great grandfather was known as John Jones “Sgadan”, and my family in Dolgellau is still called by this nickname today. As far as I know my gg grandfather was a Welshman, but the word Sgadan is the Gaelic word for herrings (the Welsh word is penwaig), so why did he have a Gaelic nickname – did he buy his fish from Irish boats or is there an Irish family connection that I don’t know about?

There is a story about my gg grandfather, which I have heard so often that it must be true. He was pushing his cart through the village of Penygroes in Caernarfonshire calling out his trade Fresh Fish, Fresh Fish, Fresh Fish when a woman said to him “Why are you calling in English in Penygroes where we all speak Welsh?”

John Jones agreed and started calling out in “Welsh” Fish Fresh, Fish Fresh, Fish Fresh!

Any thoughts about tracing fish hawkers will be appreciated.

[casalguidi]

Hi Dolgellau

Regarding the difficulties in tracing hawkers of any description, are we talking about travelling hawkers as in travelling "Gypsies" or hawkers whose families were quite firmly settled?

I am descended from travellers (in the south east) and have loads of fish hawkers in my tree.  However, these fish hawkers weren't always described as fish hawkers so it may well be that my lot hawked other  commodities at times.  It would appear that they became fish hawkers once they had started living in houses - it's not the kind of occupation that you could follow whilst on the road almost permanently.

As mentioned on the pot hawkers thread, they were licensed by the police but the survival of these licenses are very patchy.  Enquire at the local records office for the area in question (hawkers' and pedlar's licenses).  If they lived near a fishing community, they would purchse the fish direct from the local fisherman but otherwise have it sent (often by train when that later became feasible) from fishing ports etc..  They usually had regular rounds in the town and going out to nearby villages on a regualr basis.

Have you found any hint of your hawkers living in caravans or tents, sleeping in sheds or barns or leading any kind of nomadic lifestyle or were they quite firmly settled?

Casalguidi