Help please

[drmike789]

I have a marriage certificate for my 2nd great grandfather. He was a shoemaker, as were others associated with the family. His father's profession is recorded as what looks like Goal Moler. Is there any name/term in shoemaking that would be anything like this?

Kind regards, Mike

[Prussian]

Mike,

Have you contacted http://www. cordwainers.org/history.aspx for advice?

Prussian
My gg grandfather was a master cordwainer and his younger brother a boot finisher

[Coromandel]

Hello Mike and welcome to the forum

One possibility that springs to mind just on the basis of the shape of the letters - but nothing to do with shoemaking! -
is Coal Meter. (You could perhaps post an image of the part of the certificate that shows the occupation, in case our handwriting experts can make anything of it.)

[drmike789]

Hi, Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, it does not seem I can paste a copy into this message. I've tried a few times in different formats.

I checked the FAQs and I cannot see a Manage Attachments button.

[Coromandel]

I'm not sure that there is a way to attach images directly to posts, but you can upload them to another website (such as Photobucket: see the instructions here) and then post a link on this thread.

[drmike789]

Good idea. Thanks.

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/q...2marriage2.jpg

[Jan1954]

Something Maker?

What was he recorded as in the censuses?

Also, welcome to Brit-Gen!

[drmike789]

I only recently got the marriage certificate and it is the first time I've had his name - Thomas Reed. His son Thomas Reed 1838 born London is my 2nd great grandfather. He's variously described as shoemaker, cordwainer, boot maker.

I've not yet been able to find Thomas's family before he married Jane Buckham in 1862. There is a TR who was a Deal Porter, others are tailors, ag labourers.

[drmike789]

Forgot to say, yes, Jan, it could well be maker.

And it was TR senior who was the Deal Porter, etc.

[Coromandel]

The first letter does look more like a 'G' than anything else, doesn't it? I haven't come up with any advance on 'Coal Meter' yet though. I did wonder if it might be something to do with a gaol (since gaol was often mis-spelled as goal) but no inspiration has struck about what the second word could be if the first was meant to be gaol. I also found an occupation of 'moter' in textile industries (a wool-moter removes motes from wool, for example) but couldn't make any sense of the first word. However much I squint at it, I can't make that first letter look like a 'W'.

Having failed to decipher the writing, I can only suggest an alternative way round the problem: if the marriage was in a church, you could try to track down the original parish register to see if the occupation is written more clearly there.