Daily AncestorGamekeeper
A gamekeeper was employed on a private estate to raise and protect game birds and animals for hunting, and to keep poachers off the land.
The keeper reared and released game birds such as pheasants and partridges, controlled predators like weasels, managed woods and moors to suit the game, and guided the shooting parties. He also had to prevent poaching.
The job belongs mainly to British country estates. About 25,000 gamekeepers worked in the United Kingdom at the start of the 1900s, against some three thousand full-time keepers today.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1860 to 1910 census
Wm. Gale, 42, Gamekeeper, England
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Daily Ancestor. "Gamekeeper." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/gamekeeper. Last checked 2026-10-10.