Labourer or farmer

I've seen some examples of the same person being designated farmer or labourer at different times. One can also see from censuses that in many cases when a farmer's son got married and stayed in the home place, some or all of his siblings left home. So a brother who might call himself a farmer up to then might go and work as a labourer. If he goes on to rent or own even a small amount of land he could call himself a farmer, even if only part-time. In the cases that I came across there was a lot of moving from place to place, so people may have been able to "reinvent themselves".

Would it depend on who filled it out ?

Most likely the registrar (for civil regs) or the officiating priest (baptism ,marriage )would have filled out the details so perhaps they put down what they considered the correct occupation .

In the census case they or a family member may have filled in the details .The distinction between being a farmer or a labourer was a very grey area I would imagine in many cases where people had 10/15 acres of rented land but maybe worked on a part time basis for a larger farmer .

On the other hand the social status of being considered (or considering yourself ) a farmer would have been and in some cases still is ,very important in rural Ireland .Start a thread on the Farming Board here regarding part time/fulltime farmers and see the reaction .

In my own family tree research see people described as farmers and labourers alternately .Wouldn't read too much into it really .

I cannot see why being described as a labourer and/or farmer would have had any implications from a financial point of view especially in the late 19th century .

The vast vast majority of farmers ,even substantial ones ,were renting their land rather than freeholders .

Think it would be more from a social standing point of view and perceived position in the community that a distinction would be important to some .

Had a look at my own family here at home on 1901 census .

My great grandfather is head of household.His sons are listed as farmers sons whilst his nephew who was working alongside them was a farm labourer even though his father (my great grandfathers brother )would have been farming a substantially larger piece of land at the time with his own sons .A sister to the farm labourer (ie niece to my great grandfather ) was also living there in both 1901 and 1911 .On 1901 census she is farmers daughter whilst in 1911 her occupation is simply farmer .

Can't imagine they would have envisaged the census returns etc being looked at 100 years later .Like us ticking a box on an online form for occupation on say an insurance application .