Daily AncestorPilot
A pilot in old records was a harbor or river pilot, a local expert who came aboard to guide ships through a dangerous channel, river or harbor entrance.
Pilots knew the depths, currents, sandbars and hazards of one stretch of water. They boarded incoming and outgoing vessels and took charge of steering them through, usually licensed by a local pilotage authority.
Before 1900 the word in a census nearly always means this maritime job, not an aviator. Look at the industry column or the place: a pilot in a port town or on a river was a water pilot.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Jas. Dorsey, 42, Pilot, Steamboat
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Pilot." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/pilot. Last checked 2026-10-01.