Riddle Maker

[KatieB]

I have f ound this occupation on parish for 2 generations of my fAMily in the mid 1800's. Apart fROm MAKig sEives what would this occupation entail?

ps sorry for the state of this post I was assIStEd by a 19mth old

[busyglen]

Had a quick look round Katie, but could only see what you have discovered already, ie. maker of sieves.

Glenys

[Lynda Cunningham]

Hi Katie

You may find this link interesting?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...9/ixgmain.html

best wishes
Lynda

[busyglen]

That's interesting Lynda, you learn something every day!

Glenys

[Peter Goodey]

Like many occupations, context is all important. For example what were the local industries? What jobs did the neighbours have?

Take a vaguely similar job "riddler" - this could have a variety of connotations depending what went on the locality.

[jeeb]

Hi Katie,
A riddle was and still is a sieve. The riddle in your ancestors occupation would most likely to have been a corn riddle. This would consist of a circular piece of wood about 2' in diameter and 3" high with mesh in the base, it was used for seperating the corn from the chaff. Shaking it allowed the whole grain to fall through the fine mesh leaving the chaff (husks) remaining in the riddle.

Cheers Jeremy.

[KatieB]

Hi Everbody,
Thanks for the information the link was really helpful I can picture him in his workshop.
My family are/were from Armagh a small agricultural town/city (we have 2 cathedrals) in the north of Ireland, so they were probably corn riddles as Jeremy suggests,
Being Ireland have'nt any census records to go on for occupations but other family members were Labourers, carters,shoemakes, millworkers, flax dressers, and domestic servants.
Armagh and the surrounding area had several linnin mills at the time.