In message <[email protected]>, jsavile <[email protected]> writes >Sifting through information purchased from Bucks FHS, I'm curious as to some >of the occupations listed. I believe they would be to do with shoemaking >but can anyone tell me please what is a 'laster' or a 'liftmaker'? And >what exactly is a 'scavenger'? In theory, they should be able to tell you, but maybe not. laster - boot and shoe trade, a maker of shaped wooden 'feet, on which a bespoke shoe was made. The best shoemakers kept individual lasts for all their customers, from which a new pair could be created without further meauring. Factory shoe would have a metal past, not tailored to individual feet, but sized and also shaped rioght and left (early shoes were not) liftmakers should be building up show heels from shaped strips of leather (best) or a leather outer filled with a paste composition (cheap) a scavenger is a dustman in a town, collecting up rubbish from houses and the street (employed by the town or parish) In London at least, there were free lance scavengers, poor people who made a living by rummaging in rubbish tips for what they could find (and it wasn't always 'a bloke in Leather Lane dropped a diamond down a drain, so we;s going there again, down below'.) -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society