Why did a pork Butcher just sell pork?

[WHS1899]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner......eldest home from uni, youngest awaiting GCSE results (passed all ) and OH started new job, so it's been fraught!

Elizabeth Newman lived in St John St, St Sephulchre, London when she was a pork butcher. By 1861 she was a monthly nurse  at 4 Charterhouse Lane, Finsbury, Middx, and by 1871 she was a nurse at 23 St Johns St, Finsbury with the Robinson family (I think the wife Mary Ann Robinson may be Elizabeth's daughter). So I guess being a pork butcher was too much.

I only have her husband John Newman on the 1841 census at St John  St, St Sephulchrs, London, he was 35, NBIC and no occupation given. By 1851 Elizabeth is the Head of Household, so I guess John had died? Not sure where I now go to find out more about him......any ideas anyone?

Does anyone know the difference between a MONTHLY nurse and a Nurse? Are they one and the same?

Beverley

[behindthefrogs]

A monthly nurse attended a woman during the first month after her confinement.  She thus specialized in looking after mother and child just after child birth.

David

[Gardener]

Can I chip in with a question?
I seem to recall that when I was a kid the pork had to be kept separate from the other meat in the butchers because there had been a risk of parasites in the pork (which is why it was never served rare). Is that correct?

[Nick29]

Yes, quite correct.  You can get Trichinosis from eating badly cooked pork, which is infected with the larvae of a species of roundworm Trichinella spiralis.  Although rarely fatal, it can give some pretty nasty side effects.  Now the process of infection is better understood, the likelihood of eating infected meat is quite low, because more precautions are taken to prevent it.

[WHS1899]

David,
Thanks for your reply about monthly nurses.
Beverley

[FaerieFan]

Somewhere in the far recesses of my mind I seem to remember that there was a special license to allow a person to slaughter pigs. The license was purely for pig slaughtering.

Is this correct?

[KarenE]

I found this thread very interesting because I too have a female pork butcher in my lineage. This was back in the 1830s. I thought there had been some mistake - it didn't seem like a woman's job but she could have been a retailer of pork products.

[GrahamSimons]

A bit off topic - but if a pork butcher sells pork from pigs that he slaughters, what are we to think of the businesses that call themselves Family Butchers?

[Berlin-Bob]

Slightly related: there are several topics on RootsChat about german pork butchers (and their families), who came to Britain and set up in business as pork butchers.

Topic: RootsChat Topics: German Pork Butchers
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,509347.0.html

Next time you are in Germany go to any big supermarket and have a look at the cold meats section: metre upon metre of different ways to process a pig

Bob