family tree trackers what does this mean?

[cheeryface]

on the 1881 census the occupation listed is hooker (fhtr)
what would those letters stand for?

ohh not sure I can ask on ancestry or genes if you want. Whilst bumping for someone more knowledgeable.

What are the people in the same area doing for jobs? Any clues there? If you can tell me who/what/where I'll have a look on ancestry and see what I make of the squiggles if that'd help.

thanx, well, i think the job was in a print warehouse but i have no clue what those letters would mean!

Are you sure it's not a mistranscription of fthr (father)

This site gives 'hooker' as a worker in a textile industry operating a machine which laid fabric flat- f may be for fabric?

Hmmm. Well, as there is only one "hooker (fhtr)" listed in the 1881 census I found the original record.

Interestingly, "Hooker" is written very clearly and largely, like all the other occupations above it. The extra letters afterwards are smaller, written at more of an angle and in a finer line (so with less pressure or added in in a different pen?). They look to be intended to be initials, so F. H. T. R. (there are definitely full stops after the F and the H). I'm not entirely confident that the T is really a T, although it probably is, and I'm even less confident that the R is really an R.

At a guess, the place he worked?

Another idea... there are a few people (all London-based, though, and all women) on the 1881 census described as "Fthr finisher", "Fthr curler" and "Ostrick fthr worker". So potentially fthr might be an abbreviation for feather (but it only appears to be this one London-based enumerator using it, and it doesn't really tie in with the way it's written on your relative's record).

That was assuming that fhtr was a misspelling of fthr, obviously, which is also unlikely. I am rather clutching at straws...

Oooh! I've found several other people in 1881 with "FHT" written in on top of their occupation. So presumably it's some specific code that enumerators used when going through their returns. Still don't know what it is, though, but I think you can conclude that "Hooker" is his occupation and he gets counted as an FHT for census enumeration period, whatever one of those is.

If you can find the file for the front pages of the census record, the enumerators often wrote extra notes with the key to abbreviations that they used throughout.

FH could be factory hand, which would fit with Hooker. Not sure what the other 2 letters could be though.

hmmm the plot thickens

Family tree people, do any of you know how I can find out information about someones service in the Royal Navy in about 1860ish. There is a lot of mythology surrounding one particular person in my family tree and I want to see how much of it is true.

Also, does anyone know anything about French records, are they as organised and systematic as UK census records? What are my chances of finding someone born in France in 1806.

How about having a look at the Naval Biographical Database

You could also try the National Archives at Kew and it's always worth trying a search of the National Archives Catalogue . Type in surname and any other key words and see what comes up!

Ancestry allows searches of the Naval Bographical Dictionary of 1849 or your local main library may have a copy you could browse through.

There's also more info about Navy records Here .