Hello Lynne, and listers, How are you? That was very informative. Guess I have not given much thought to the Apprentice. In today's world, I believe it would be an adult or near adult trainee, who was training for a job. We came into a situation recently with our 18 year old daughter, where she was taking an ROP class, which is job training for H.S. credit. They ended up getting her a job, but it only trains and does not pay. They have until June 4, to decide whether they will hire her or not. Of course they do not call it apprentice or any such thing, but it seems similar. The term was certainly openended, with no positive ending date for training, or for making her work for free. She has given up most of her weekend nights for free. Seems like a racket to me...:-) So, guess the apprentice workers are still in the world in some capacity today. Seems strange that we do not see the apprentice workers in the major families that I am researching around Greenbrier Co., so this practice must have been limited to a certain spectrum of the population, whether that could be people related to the Europeans, who I believe practiced this apprentice style living or something. Well, I will let this go, am just thinking outloud. Always interesting to gain new perspectives on things. Joyce in Ca. <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/3231/">Our Extended Family </A>