Censuses reveal some of the strangest jobs in history
Published Saturday September 5th, 2009
Monday Canada celebrating its 115th Labour Day
John Corbett grew up in Saint John in the late 1800s, at a time when many young men joined the Port City's shipbuilding trade.
But Corbett took a different path and became Canada's only official "lunatic keeper," according to the 1901 Census.
As the country rings in its 115th Labour Day, a look at workforce trends over the last century reveals some of the strangest jobs in history.
According to Canadian census data from 1851 to 1916, other odd jobs include a self-declared "pig nurse." Mary Brown, a 26-year-old Toronto resident, listed the veterinary specialization in the 1901 census.
Robert Hosking, a 42 year-old husband and father of four in Huron, Ont., listed his occupation as "monster" and John Quinn, a 48 year-old Gaspé, Que.-resident declared himself a "witch" in the 1881 census.
"Censuses are truly colourful records which tell us so much about our ancestors, from when and where they were born, where they lived and even what they did for a living," said Karen Peterson, a spokeswoman for Ancestry.ca, an online source for digitized historical Canadian censuses.
"You can see the general trending and history of the country," she added. "For example in 1901 there were far more saloon keepers than doctors. It's an interesting slice of what life was like in that period of time."
In the same census, David Aitken, a 34 year-old living in New Westminster, B.C., was listed as an "idiot" along with three other men who were patients at an asylum.
Nearly 40 people claimed to be professional beggars including Mary Munroe, a 25 year-old Baptist living in Yarmouth, N.S.
"The census workers would usually walk around on foot and whoever they found they had to include in one way or another," said Peterson. "So often there are few details or explanatory notes. But what's interesting is when living relatives discover these records and can shed light on the person's life."
Although many strange and amusing details are revealed in the census data, they also provide a glimpse at workforce trends at the turn of the last century.
The most common occupation at the time was labourer, with nearly 40 per cent of the total population indicating manual work as their occupation. By comparison, only 15 per cent are today's equivalent of "specialty trade contractor," according to the most recent census.
While the workforce and labour conditions have changed over the last hundred years, the annual holiday - which marks the economic and social achievement of workers - remains vitally important.
Greg Kealey, a labour historian and vice-president of research at the University of New Brunswick, said Labour Day remains relevant because many of the gains workers made after the Second Word War are being chipped away at.
"There have been no advances on those fronts for a long time," he said. "The labour movement remains fairly strong in Canada but it's really being chipped away at in other countries."
On the heels of layoffs in the province's forestry sector and growing demand for workers in the service industry, Kealey said there is an increasing premium on education.
"There will always be jobs in the resource industry in this province, but there is a shift taking place towards the service industry," he said.
"An education is becoming more crucial in the workforce."
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