Daily AncestorComsn.
Comsn. is short for commission, as in commission merchant, one who sold for others for a fee; it was an approved 1900 census abbreviation.
Comsn. is on the 1900 census list of abbreviations allowed in the narrow occupation column, together with Merch. for merchant. It usually turns up as Comsn. merch., a commission merchant.
A commission is a fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a deal, so a commission merchant sold goods on behalf of others rather than his own stock. The trade often follows, as in Comsn. merch., produce.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1900 census
Comsn. Merch., Produce
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Daily Ancestor. "Comsn.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/comsn. Last checked 2026-10-10.