Daily AncestorPacker
A packer packed goods for shipping or sale; in the meat trade the word meant a meatpacker, a slaughtering and packing business or worker.
Wiktionary defines a packer as a person whose business is to pack things, especially one who packs food for preservation, and also as a clipping of meatpacker.
The 1900 census instructions told enumerators to distinguish a packer from a shipper and to state the line, as packer, crockery. Read the industry or the goods named to know what was packed.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Mary Kowalczyk, 18, Packer, Candy factory
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Packer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/packer. Last checked 2026-10-12.