[From Ancestry.com]
Have you ever pondered what kind of job you would have had if you lived a hundred or more years ago? There wasn’t a big call back then for IT professionals, auto repair shops, or neurosurgery. But there was still plenty to do in order to keep society running smoothly — even if that sometimes looked very different from what we’re accustomed to today.
Here are some fascinating professions from history:
1. A saggar maker’s bottom knocker was someone who helped the maker of saggars, which were clay boxes used to hold pottery while it was being kiln-fired. The bottom knocker put clay in a metal hoop, and then literally knocked it into shape to create the saggar’s base.
2. Back before there were affordable and reliable alarm clocks, a knocker-up made a few pence a week in England and Ireland by using a long, lightweight stick, often bamboo, to tap on their clients’ upper floor windows and wake them up so they could get to work on time.
3. Toad doctors were practitioners of a specific tradition of medicinal folk magic, and operated in western England until the end of the 1800s. They primarily tried to heal the skin disease called “The King’s Evil” (scrofula), but also dabbled in curing other ailments caused by witchcraft. They did this by placing a live toad, or a toad leg, in a muslin bag and hanging it around the sick person’s neck.
4. A ballad monger made a living selling printed ballad sheets on the street.
READ THE REST OF THE LIST HERE: http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2014/05/21/14-amazing-professions-from-history/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&o_xid=60688&o_lid=60688&o_sch=Content+Marketing
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