Ann, you ask the most engaging questions. It will be fun to learn from others on this. I can only contribute on turner two meanings I know of. The first is that an occupation is close to what one might call a fitter (as in pipe fitter). It has to do with mechanical fabrication. (I suspect the term comes from fabrication utilizing a lathe.) The second definition comes from around 1811, when a movement was founded in Berlin, in what was Prussia, to unite the principalities into one nation to fight Napoleon. The Turner movement, essentially liberal, involved physical training (not dissimilar to the YMCA) as well as patriotic ideals. The Turners were driven underground during Metternich's age. And now I am at the very limit of my knowledge on this. Cheers, Laura On Sep 15, 2009, at 10:34 PM, Ann Q wrote: > > Dear Lister, > > I have, for the past 3 days, been re-reading Ryberg's List of Names > of the Inhabitants of the Danish West Indies., and I have some more > words. > > > Turner >

lwa101@comcast.net wrote: > Ann, you ask the most engaging questions. It will be fun to learn from > others on this. > > I can only contribute on turner two meanings I know of. The first is > that an occupation is close to what one might call a fitter (as in > pipe fitter). It has to do with mechanical fabrication. (I suspect the > term comes from fabrication utilizing a lathe. > Lathe work leads to the most common meaning - a turner is a person who shapes wood on a lathe, most commonly for such things as table legs, chair legs and back staves, staircase balusters, candlesticks and so on - Turner is a very common name in England. It was a country occupation, turning being possible with quite primitive mechanisms, handmade from wood and rope, world-wide precursors of the complex metal machines that first come to mind today. John Weiss