Clues in the unsettled life of a gamekeeper?

 

                                                                   Books about old trades should come in handy

I've been doing genealogy research for a long time and have amassed a fair number of books on various subjects related to my research. My recent findings had me pulling two books about occupations off the shelves. It all had to do with my 3 x great grandfather who I've finally determined to be Elias Maidment. It took me a while and a few false trails before I was satisfied that he was the man; the target of my DNA search to determine who the father of my 2 x great grandmother, Mary Rideout nee Maidment, was. 

Once I settled on Elias, some of the questions I had about Mary began to make sense. I had often wondered why the censuses had given her birthplace as Gloucestershire when, from what I could determine, she had spent most of her life in Dorset. When I filled in Elias' children I noticed their birthplaces changed a lot, as though he had a profession that required him to move from place to place. Baptismal records didn't list his profession until 1814 when his son Jasper was christened in Enford, Wiltshire. That record showed that Elias was a gamekeeper. As he retained this profession when he later moved to Sixpenny Handley, Dorset it seems likely that his earlier moves might also have been due to his trade.

                                                      A list of the birthplaces of Elias Maidment's children

It looks like those books about occupations will come in handy as I find out more about gamekeepers. It must have been a worthy profession, some of his sons followed in his footsteps. I'm also wondering if the profession of woodman might be related in some way to that of gamekeeper as some of my Rideout clan were woodmen and the Rideout and Maidment lines came together with my 2 x great grandparents, Thomas Rideout and Mary Maidment. Let's see where this line of research takes me.