List of Vintage English Occupations
Some of the names for occupations of our ancestors can be quite confusing, trying to guess what that job entailed. You might have seen a job name on a census record, listed in a city directory, on some documents or records and not have a clue to what it was.
Online with the Family Researcher of the U. K. (copyright by Jane Hewitt) they have compiled a dictionary of old occupation in alphabetical order. Click on any to come up what that job consisted of. True, these are United Kingdom occupations of decades ago, but surprisingly many of those occupational names were also used in America. 
A couple examples of similar or same occupational names used in U.K. and America years ago:
Charwoman: A woman hired to work around the house – cleaning, tidying, mending etc.
Fish Porter: a porter who transported fish in a fish market or to and from a warehouse.
Granger: farm worker or laborer.
Huckster: a traveling salesman who sold small items, carrying them in a wagon or carrying items for sale house to house.
Longshoreman: a person who loads and unloads cargo at a port for ships.
Sawyer: a person who used a saw to cut wood. May have been employed in the timber or lumber industry. 
Look what jobs or occupations you have for each of your ancestors (males and females) on the family tree and see if there is anything similar to the dictionary of old jobs.
Photos: Charwoman; Hustler door to door; blacksmith, and a sawyer.
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
No Longer Occupations of the 19th Century
Unlikely Occupations in the 21st Century
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