Daily AncestorSeamstress
A seamstress sewed clothing or household linens for pay, working at home, in customers' houses, in a workshop or in a factory.
Sewing was one of the most common paid jobs for women. A seamstress might do plain sewing and mending, finish garments for a tailor or dressmaker, or run a sewing machine in a clothing factory.
The 1940 census instructions give seamstress at home as a sample entry, a reminder that much of this work was done in the household. The pay was often low, and widows frequently took it up.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Bridget Lane, 34, Seamstress, Ireland
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Daily Ancestor. "Seamstress." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/seamstress. Last checked 2026-10-01.