Daily AncestorBlockmaker
A blockmaker made the wooden pulleys, called blocks, used on ships to lead ropes and raise sails and cargo; a few made printing blocks instead.
A sailing ship needed hundreds of blocks of different sizes, each with a wooden shell and a turning wheel inside. Blockmakers were a shipyard trade, working near riggers and sailmakers.
Another blockmaker made the carved or engraved blocks used to print pictures or patterns. The place, a port or a printing town, usually tells you which.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Saml. Hatch, 44, Blockmaker, Maine
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Blockmaker." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/blockmaker. Last checked 2026-10-01.