Daily AncestorJourneyman
A journeyman was a skilled tradesman who had finished an apprenticeship and worked for wages under a master.
The trade ladder ran from apprentice to journeyman to master. The word comes from French journee, a day, since a journeyman was paid by the day's work.
In census returns you may see journeyman printer or journeyman tailor, which tells you the person had trained but did not run his own shop.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Saml. Platt, 24, Journeyman printer, N.Y.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Journeyman." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/journeyman. Last checked 2026-10-01.