[PW] Re: ?meaning of FA = Fatilognist/thx

[AllenAmet at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/13/2006 8:39:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
autumntree at hotmail.com writes: (reply below)

> My father, who has plenty of experience transcribing censuses and other 
> older records, suggested it's a mistranscription of "Tobacconist."  The 
> record is from Georgia, after all.  The person who made that document and 
> made up the abbreviation also indicated that "fatilognist" was a guess of a 
> transcription with a question mark after the word. ...
>    Perhaps even more interesting are the enumerators' instructions on what 
> to 
> record for occupations.  The 1880 instructions include such gems as "Call no 
> man a 'commissioner,' a 'collector,' an 'agent,' an 'artist,' an 'overseer,' 
> a 'professor,' a 'treasurer,' a 'contractor,' or a 'speculator,' without 
> further explanation" and "Use the word 'huckster' in all cases where it 
> applies."
> 
**************
  Thanks to all who helped with this word. But since the abbreviation of "FA"
 was specifically listed, it seems likely that the (longer) word also 
contained those letters. Based on the various responses here, I would guess that our 
"Fatilognist" was a misreading of "Fatiloquist," assuming that the problem 
arose with reading long-hand script ("gn" for "qu"). I would guess that we would 
have to look thru a lot of old census sheets, to see the term "fortune 
teller." It does sound rather a fancy word, I'll admit... one step above (or below) a 
phrenologist.

  Perhaps if we worked backwards, with a known person in the 1880s who had 
such an occupation, we would see it on the forms.

  I did come across a person whom I knew independently to be a seller of 
moonshine whiskey (1910). He was listed as a "drug salesman."

Best
Allen