Norman Tulloch wrote: > Margaret VanAuker wrote: >> I have been checking the 1841 census for Walls and Flotta. I have come >> across an occupation called: seabong. Can some one tell me what this >> means? > > > Margaret, > > I'm a bit worried about this "seabong" thing. It sounds more like > something out of Lewis Carroll rather than the occupation of a > long-dead Orcadian. I've never heard of it at all. Google does > produce some hits, but they mostly seem to be from Korea rather than > the island of Hoy. I checked the Scottish dictionaries at > http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/ but they came up with nothing either. > > Are you trying to read a copy of the original handwritten census? If > so, are you sure that it says "seabong" rather than, say, "seaman"? > Not all of the handwriting in such documents is easy to make out. If > it's a transcription you're reading, maybe the transcriber just got it > wrong? > > Is the person with such an occupation male or female? Could the > mystery word possibly be read as something else? "Seabong" has me > stumped but a bit intrigued! > > Regards, > > Norman Tulloch Margaret, What is the name you are looking at? I'll have a look on my copy and see if I can find anything. -- Mike Clouston