Daily AncestorDomestic servant
A domestic servant was a person paid to work in a private household, cooking, cleaning, washing or caring for children.
The 1870 and 1880 census instructions told enumerators to report all such workers simply as domestic servants, and to list hotel and restaurant cooks and waiters separately.
A live-in servant was counted with the household she worked for, so she appears among the employer's family, often listed as servant in the relationship column. Many were young immigrant women or Black women, and this may be the only record placing them in that town.
As seen in a recordOccupation and relationship columns of the 1870 to 1940 census
Bridget Hoey, 19, servant, Domestic servant, Ireland
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Domestic servant." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/domestic-servant. Last checked 2026-10-01.