Am I in the right place and can I do this?

[Kerrywood]

I don't think it's a mystery. I believe it reads Register Office for Servs.

This was an employment agency for servants. Most major towns had them, as can be seen from the directories. Just search for the term register office for servants (as keyword) at

www.
historicaldirectories.org

Here's an example of how they worked ...

from The Faithful Servant, or The History of Elizabeth Allen, by Amelia Bristow (1824), pp. 161-2
"Mrs. Scott, whose knowledge of London was very confined, advised her to apply to a Register-office in the neighbourhood, which professed to provide females, of good character, with suitable places. Elizabeth did so, and paid a few shillings to have her name placed on their books, but they did nothing more. She was sent by them to several situations, some at great distances, but none of them at all suitable to the description of place she had subscribed for. After three weeks spent in the most harassing manner, and without any prospect of ultimate success, Elizabeth's patience began to exhaust itself, and she requested either a direction to a place likely to suit her, or the return of her money. Her application was received with insolence, and rejected with the greatest abuse; nor was this all, for, on her offering to remonstrate with the office-keeper on the injustice of his conduct, he compelled her to quit the office, and shut the door against her in the most violent manner, telling her to come there again at her peril ...."

[Mutley]

I cannot make it out for sure either certainly looks like Register Office for Servs and I don't think it has been added later.

Have you clicked on the enumeration district description?
District 17 mentions the names of a couple of Drapers shops, the High Street, the Borough Road and says to the cottage attached to the Friends Chapel.

Perhaps an old map might give you a clue as to what is nearby and if there is an employment agency of some sort.

[Mutley]

Just an after thought.
There are quite a few dressmakers mentioned, there are also the two drapers shops.
I wonder if the drapers shops did a sort of piece work, they farmed out jobs to certain people on their register and she was one of those. Not working full time, just when a job came up.

There was a lot of piece work back in those times and I think probably for many years more.
I know whole families would sit round a table making bows or filling envelopes or whatever.

[valg]

I agree it looks like Secos or Seios or Suos and I am now convincing myself that the R in Register is not the same as all other R's on the page but..........?
Thanks for all the help anyway maybe it will be a mystery for ever!

THis is maybe a bit left field but if you google Suos it is latin for Belonging to oneself--his/her own.. 61 she is retired..now on the 81 census she is described as an annuitant could the 71 census just be a very strange way of descibing her as self supporting?

[Coromandel]

Sunderland newspapers or trades directories might provide more information about the register office. There are good collections of both at the Sunderland Local Studies Centre.

While searching the British Library 19th c. newspapers website I came across a long article in The Newcastle Courant, 19 August 1881. Here are some short extracts from it:

'REGISTER OFFICES FOR SERVANTS'
'There are upwards of twenty register offices for domestic servants in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and hardly a year passes without some addition to their numbers...'

'The modern register office in our large towns and cities is simply an exchange for employers and their male or female servants. Some in London are very general, furnishing or professing to supply good places for clerks, shopmen, or even mechanics and labourers... At Newcastle-upon-Tyne and other towns the register offices are used by all classes of servants, cooks, housemaids, laundresses, footmen, pages, coachmen, or gardeners, who enter their names, paying a small fee, and receiving earnest money on engagement from the mistress or master who pays about 3d. in the pound commission upon the proposed annual salary to the keeper of the register office...'

[Benic]

Firstly a big thank you to all who have added to this post and my understanding of this census entry. So much to think about and follow up. I was excited when I first saw the entry but unsure, not just about the word but how I could find more about registered offices. You have all given me a lot to be going on with. I have the 1895 OS maps of Sunderland and the other links and leads are a very helpful start to my enquiry. I shall go away now and do some work on this. If I find more I will report it here.

This is my first question on Brit-Gen and its such a really helpful and positive result. I'm new (1year) to family history and not in a hurry to collect names, much more interested in details of lives etc. I did a bit of work on the Punshon name so I coppied it below. Thank you again everybody.

Benic

Punshon or Punchon might it have been Puncheon originally? Puncheon Origin: The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition of the word Puncheon: a large cask for liquids or other commodities, holding from 72 to 120 gallons. Origin: late Middle English: from Old French poinchon, of uncertain origin although forms in Old French and English correspond to those of puncheon. Example: “...........Mrs MacStinger resorted to a great distance every Sunday morning, to attend the ministry of the Reverend Melchisedech Howler, who having one day been discharged from the West India Docks on a false suspicion (got up against him by the general enemy) of screwing gimlets into puncheons, and applying his lips to the orifice, had announced the destruction of the world for that day....” Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, Chapter 15.

[Richard1955]

If you compare the second letter with dressmaker above it, you will see that it's an 'a'
Third letter is an 'o' so you have S.A.O.S.
There are a few options on google.

[Coromandel]

If you browse around in the same 1871 census enumerator's book, you will see several servants whose occupation (and/or relation to head of household) is just shown as 'serv', written in a very similar way to the troublesome word. I am still going to stick with Register Office for Serv[ant]s. I would put money on it
(if I had any ).

[Kerrywood]

I am still going to stick with Register Office for Serv[ant]s. I would put money on it
(if I had any ).

My money would join yours (if I had any ).

[Richard1955]

If you two were right you wouldn't need any money!