In view of the earlier comments about the meaning of the word, partner, in Victorian and Edwardian times and a suggestion it could have meant a companion, I can report that I've found someone in the 1911 census who was described in the occupation column as "Useful Companion". Not in Nottinghamshire, I hasten to add. The woman concerned was 36 and single and the schedule was completed by her employer, a single lady of 78 of private means. I would suggest the term "Useful Companion" was either a little patronising or a genuine attempt to be kind and truthful on the part of someone who didn't want to describe her companion as a domestic servant. Or am I falling into the common trap of applying 21st century standards and mindset to a more innocent age? My own feeling is that in those days a partner usually meant a business partner or a partner in some enterprise or other (there were, of course, dancing partners) and that the present-day, politically correct meaning of a partner as someone involved in a personal relationship, of whatever sex, was simply unknown. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE