Wrong.
My 2 x great grandmother doesn't appear on many census' or other official documents. Only one includes an occupation. Mary James was born at Broadward Bridge in Shropshire on 18 April 1848 and baptised two days later at the parish church in Clungunford.
At the 1851 census she, her parents and elder sister were staying/living with her aunt and uncle in High Street in the centre of Dudley. Her uncle was a tailor employing two men, so business must have been good for him. In 1857 Mary's aunt Mary died from breast cancer. The family were still living in Dudley as Mary's mother Ann was the informant on her sister's death certificate. At some time between September 1857 and the 1871 census, Mary's mother died, possibly in 1865. They are missing from the 1861 census to be able to narrow down the timeframe further.
The 1871 census taken on 2nd April is the next document where Mary (known as Polly) appears. She is aged 22 now, living with her father and elder sister in Paradise. Nowadays this is adjacent to Buffery Park, in 1871 it was surrounded by gasworks, collieries and pits. Mary's sister Elizabeth (Bessie) is 24 and a Dressmaker while Mary is a Milliner. Perfect, I thought. One sews dresses, the other makes hats.
Well no. In my research for these occupation blogs, I have discovered that until the late 1800's millinery and dressmaking were much of a muchness. It seems that dressmakers sewed dresses, mostly, working with pre-cut pieces of fabric. Milliners on the other hand were more likely to be designing and creating hats for women as well as sewing mantles, capes, cloaks, gloves and petticoats.
Most girls were taught to sew and stitch from an early age, some were apprenticed. Apprenticeships though could be long (up to 7 years for a milliner) and expensive. Girls who were apprenticed earned no wages so their parents would have been required to support them during this time. Mary's father was a widower, so I doubt he had any extra money at his disposal. Perhaps they trained with their uncle, the tailor, for a time or found opportunities elsewhere in their community, since they don't appear to have had any female relatives living nearby.
The clothing industry, which dressmaking and millinery were part of, was the second largest employer of women (the largest being domestic service). In 1871 there are estimated to have been just under a million women employed in the clothing industry in England, the majority being dressmakers and milliners.
Four years after this census on 23 August 1875 Mary married Thomas Kelsey, a Railway Guard, and most likely left the millinery world behind. Just short of another four years on Mary died in May 1879 aged 31 leaving her husband with two children 21 months & 9 months.
The children lived with their grandfather and Aunt, who remained a dressmaker for the rest of her life, until at least 1885.
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