re: The meaning of "private person"

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Janette Levey Frisch of East Windsor, NJ wrote: ... I was looking at the death
record of my gt gt grandmother Rywke Milmud Eisenberg from Jezierzany (now
Ozeryany) on October 11, 1888. With the help of some online programs and
indices I was able to see that her parents were named in the record and that
her father's occupation translated as "private person".

I assume this is similar to those listed on the British census as living "by
own means" or some similar notation - i.e. no known occupation? I'm fairly sure
this part of my family was not independently wealthy. Would this be the 19th
century Eastern European equivalent of "retirement"? What could he have been
living off of as a "private person"?

If gtgtgt grandfather was still working, Janette may be talking about the
equivalent of a Privatbeamter in the Habsburg Empire. We have had many postings
about the subtle meaning on this term on the Austria-Czech SIG. I suggest you
consult the message archives. This is a good opportunity to learn how to use
them. You can go to our home page, then scroll down to the bottom of the page
and find a link to the archives. I use them all the time:
http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/

Enter *Privatbeamter* into the search field for all SIGs and see what turns up!
You should get 11 messages. On the General Discussion Group archives [a
distinct archive] you only get one hit. Then try *privat beamter* as two words
- you get more hits. I should tell you that the term *Privatbeamter* was
closely associated with Jewish employees, who may not have been allowed to work
in the public sector because of discrimination. They often worked in private
family-owned concerns. The term does not mean "of no known occupation".

Privat can also imply "retired".

Celia Male [U.K.]
---
Sender: Celia Male <celiamale@xxxxxxxxx>
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