Hi Deb, And indeed, a Happy New Year to you, along with my / our thanks for all your wonderful and interesting posts. I know this wasn't the intended purpose of your post but you rang one of my "unfinished business" bells so I thought you might be able to answer a dumb question which has been plaguing me for several years now: The second profession you list is "Agent" and I have seen this same term listed in many older business directories. The thing is that exactly what an "Agent" does seems to be something of a mystery. There are many agents listed in the directories where the goods, services, or whatever, they deal with (agent for?) are listed right along with the term. So you will get a Dry Goods Agent, or a Ships Agent, etc., etc. and most of these are self explanatory but it does appear that a (just) "Agent" is something different. I have tried all sorts of search engines and search methodologies but one weakness the Internet has is in identifying a very specific meaning for a term/word which is commonly linked with other explanatory terms, i.e., just like this. It gives you definitions for all sorts of Agents (as per. the examples above) but if there is a definition of what a (just) "Agent" does it is buried in the heap and beyond my abilities to extract. From inference and hints my best guess to date is that we would term him an Investor, an Entrepreneur, a Stock Broker, or even just a plain old Loan Shark, today but if you, or anyone on the list who actually knows for a fact, can really tie this term down for me, you would be resolving a very long term question mark in my poor old brain. Keep up the good work! Malcolm Archive CD Books Canada Inc. President: Malcolm Moody PO Box 11 Manotick Ontario, K4M 1A2 Canada. (613) 692-2667 WEB SITE: http://www.ArchiveCDBooks.ca FACEBOOK: http://tinyurl.com/ACDB-Can-on-Facebook On 30 Dec, 2010, at 3:00 AM, can-ont-simcoe-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:49:44 -0500 > From: Deborah Crawford <deborahc8@gmail.com> > Subject: [CAN-ONT-SIMCOE] 1920s occupations > To: can-ont-simcoe@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: > <AANLkTik8jxJ-auo2yiS9xt2_R-zX5aty4BqMS08iFJjh@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Good morning folks. Hope one and all have had an enjoyable Christmas, and > are looking forward to new adventures in 2011. > > Regulars to the list have read my posts regarding the great collection of > unusual documents and treasures in the Family History Research Center at the > Penetanguishene Centennial Museum. A big part of our collection were > ledgers and such kept by Mr. W.H. Hewson, town clerk and solicitor for much > of the population. When having the good fortune to transcribe his ledgers, > I quite often extract information that may be of interest to researchers, > and for the study of the local population of the day. Periodically, I post > this information here as well. So - because I have some time on my hands > today I thought I'd post a list of occupations from the 1920's, extracted > from a conveyancing ledger that spans the time period of 1 May 1921 to 14 > February 1927. Museum ACC# is 97103-27; and the transcription is on the > shelves of the research center. > > If you see a familiar name and really absolutely honestly cannot make it up > to the museum to look at the transcription, drop me a line off-list and when > and if I have the time, I'll provide the extract to you. Otherwise, take it > as one more reason that you must pop in to the museum and have a look around > (shameless self promotion alert). Unless otherwise noted, residents are > from Penetanguishene. > > In alphabetical order - the first few occupations and residents listed are: > > Advertising Agent: Fred Rutherford, Jr (Midland) August 1922 and William J. > Walker (Barrie) September 1922 > > Agent: William M. Walker (Barrie) July 1922 > > Artisan: Joseph D'Aoust August 1922, Joseph Desrochers September 1921, > Miles Fitzpatrick March 1922, Joseph Hall (Midland), Joseph Klug, Jr. May > 1922, June 1922, Joseph Klug, Sr. May 1922, June 1922, John Lepage June > 1922, Arthur Packwood December 1922, William Paws December 1922, John > Sweanor June 1922 > > Bank Clerk: Walter Ellis Scott January 1922 > > Barber: Sheldon Ego September 1921, William Webster September 1922 > > Blacksmith: Adjutor Gignac September 1921 > > Blacksmith & Implement Agent: Mark Little (Elmvale) August 1922 > > Contractor and builder: Napoleon Payette January 1922 > > Cook: Henry Brissette September 1922, Marcel Lemieux June 1922 > > Division Court Clerk: William John Martin May 1922 > > Drayman: Hermengilde Picotte June 1922 > > Electrician: Oscar Louis Dubeau September 1921 > > Engineer: Herbert Edgar Bowles March 1922 > > I'll end here. The next occupation I'll start with is "esquire" (I know > this isn't really an occupation, but it's how many were referred to). > > Enjoy. > > Deborah Crawford > > > ------------------------------