Daily AncestorBricklayer
A bricklayer built walls, chimneys and other structures by laying bricks in mortar, a branch of masonry narrower than a stone mason's work.
A bricklayer and a mason are related but different: a stone mason may lay any mix of stone, block and brick. Professional bricklayers usually learned through a formal apprenticeship of about three to four years.
The 1880 census told enumerators to distinguish stone masons from brick masons and not to describe any man as a mechanic if a more exact title could be given, so bricklayer and brick mason are both common entries.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1940 census
Henry Doane, 35, Bricklayer
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Daily Ancestor. "Bricklayer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/bricklayer. Last checked 2026-10-10.