Kelly, Chris, Sande & <Patscga>, Thank you all very much for taking the time to look at my occupation question. I'm sorry the entry was hard to find, but believe me, it took me a lot of time & effort to finally find this family. Even after I found it in Heritage Quest, I had to search pages in Ancestry. I didn't know any better way to define the location for you. The Ancestry (library version) print out of the listing is definitely MAGEN including Susan, Jno and others. Of course, the name I was searching - MAYER- is often spelled in a variety of ways, but MAGEN was an eye opener for me. Anyway, we all seem to see about the same things. If I print out the actual census page on letter size paper, which makes the image pretty small, the first word in the occupation seems to be "Coal". I went through "canal" and "levee", too when looking at larger versions letter by letter and making comparisons with other letters on the page. I've about accepted the second word is "Mercht". "Coal Merchant" makes sense for that area, but "Canal Merchant" could also. The Union Canal was a big influence there and I noticed the nearby boatmen and locktender listings. Your explanation of abbreviation forms makes "Mercht" very likely. So for now, I'll say "Coal Merchant" and make a note of the Canal possibility. Thank you again for all your efforts. I have enough trouble deciphering my own handwritten notes sometimes. Good thing I'm not a census taker. Helpful people are really a great part of genealogy. Katharine