Althea Draper Sep 22, 2020:

Another possibility is a 'shop oiler'. They work in a workshop - forgot about this type of shop! I found one here on page 44

https://thelibrary.org/lochist/frisco/magazines/fem_1931_10/...

and in a list of jobs here

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rTEwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA101&lp...

It looks like you still get them today

https://www.helpwanted.com/20e77bd2b3534-Heavy-Duty-Shop-Oil...

Robert Carter Sep 22, 2020:

Hi Althea, yes, I also found another, albeit slim, possibility, if it is indeed an OCR issue (though as you say it's more likely to be handwritten), in this Google books link to a Dublin almanac from 1847: "soap boiler".
https://tinyurl.com/y3vgqryx

Althea Draper Sep 22, 2020:

I have had a look at old occupations and the nearest I can find is 'shop porter' and 'poller' (old name for a barber), so I would guess that there might be a problem either with deciphering older style writing or (as Robert suggests) an OCR text. If the occupation definitely is 'shop poiler' then it might be worth asking on a genealogy forum about what it means. Here are a couple of links that might be of some help.

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~usgwkidz/oldjobs.htm

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/...

Robert Carter Sep 22, 2020:

Hi Maria. Are you looking at the original document, or is this an OCR text?