Genealogy Forum UK

Hi There,

I have found an Ancestor of mine, William Hurst in the 1881 from the Bethnal Green part of the census and he and his wife's Job is listed as Fish Smoker.

I was wondering how I would go about working out where this job was i.e whether it was in Bethnal Green or if he had to travel to the coast for work and therefore spent little time at home.

Im a noob by the way so forgive me if im putting this in the wrong place or its a daft question e.t.c

Ta Kev

My son in law travels around with his job and wherever he can, brings us speciality foods, especially anything smoked. He comes across smoking houses all over the place, where they smoke, hams, cheese and fish. So as long as they could get access to fresh fish - it probably could be anywhere. Before we had fridges, it was a way of preserving food, so was probably more prevalent than it is today.

Welcome to the forum

I think there were plenty of fishmongers in the area and some would have smoked their own fish so he could well have lived locally. If you look for Henry Slade aged 35 in 1881, he is working as a fish smoker and is servant to a fishmonger, in Bethnal Green too.

If you have Ancestry you could look around the neighbours to your man and see what sort of work they are doing. If you don't have Ancestry then you can still do it on Familysearch by clicking the next household button, just takes bit longer to scroll.

Thanks to both, these help a lot, I know his wife was a fishsmoker as well so im am guessing they met at work and it most likely would have been local as far as employment records go - did things like that even exist in 1881 ??

Smoking fish,meat ect is a way of preseving them

Hi Kev
William was my great grandfather. He worked in a smoke hole in a small street off Brady Street. I know quite a lot about him and his death. I also have a photo of my great grandmother and have a record of an interview with their daughter Susan.

If you would like more just give me a msg.

Rgds Hank

welcome to the forum

That looks like one of the quickest link ups' ever!

Maths girl