Daily AncestorSurgeon
A surgeon was a doctor who performed operations on patients.
Wiktionary defines a surgeon as one who performs surgery, a doctor who operates on people or animals. Traditions have differed by time and place, but a modern surgeon is a licensed physician with the same medical training as other physicians before specializing in surgery.
The 1900 census instructions list physician and surgeon among the professions to be named exactly, and told enumerators to return a veterinary surgeon separately from other surgeons.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1900 census
Dr. Amos Pettibone, 50, Physician and surgeon, Vt.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Surgeon." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/surgeon. Last checked 2026-10-12.