Daily AncestorDairymaid
A dairymaid was a woman or girl who worked in a dairy, milking cows and making butter and cheese.
The word dairy itself comes from an Old English word for a female servant, because milking was historically done by dairymaids. The dairy was the room or building where milk was kept and butter and cheese were made.
In 1920 a woman who did dairy work only now and then was to be returned with no occupation, while one who did it regularly and most of the time was counted as a farm laborer.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1860 to 1910 census
Bridget Hand, 18, Dairymaid
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Daily Ancestor. "Dairymaid." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/dairymaid. Last checked 2026-10-10.