Surnames / occupations

[Hart45]

Hi there,  found this thread online. I'm decended from Yorkshire and Lancashire romanys and a few worked in the occupations that are mentioned especially in the cotton Mills none served apprenticeships.
From what I have read "mechanic" was just a general term used for an unskilled worker usually in metal or craft work.
Hartley and Metcalfe are both Romany names from the North.

[GingerVicky]

I have been researching my friends gypsy family. Most of the occupations I've found so far are Hawker or flower Hawker, collector of ferns, agricultural Labourer, general Labourer, market gardener.
In this family they had grand Biblical names such a Solomon, Abraham, Matthew and other names like Adelaide and Keziah.
In the 1901 census, three of the families were living next to each other.
Their addresses were things like "Birch cottages"
In the 1939 register, it said "Birch cottages" (a caravan)
Don't know if this helps at all but thought I'd share what I found out.

[kr236rk]

...blacksmith, toolmaker and iron turner/mechanic would be the ones needing an apprenticeship, and to mind not fitting a travelling life style.

Not so - know of a Romany white smith who turned blacksmith & was a travelling blacksmith to boot, Richard Brazier of Coventry who appears - with his spouse - on the 1871 census at Hartlepool as blacksmith.