Ship Manifest Lists Ancestor's Occupation as 'Trouble,' Genealogist Unsure How to Classify

A researcher examining Ellis Island immigration records has encountered a cataloguing dilemma after discovering that her great-great-grandfather's 1892 ship manifest lists his occupation as, simply, 'trouble.' Sarah Manifest, 44, found the entry while searching the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation database for her ancestor, one Nikolai Vexler, who arrived from Odessa aboard the SS Suevia on March 14, 1892. 'Every field is filled out normally,' Manifest said. 'Name, age, sex, nationality, last residence, final destination. Then under occupation, where everyone else says "laborer" or "tailor" or "farmer," it just says "trouble." One word. No elaboration.' Manifest consulted the original ship manifest, hoping the digitized transcription was an error. The handwritten entry clearly reads 'trouble,' written in the same steady hand as every other entry on the page. 'The examining officer wrote it without apparent hesitation,' said immigration historian Dr. Leonard Ledger. 'It's in the same ink, the same hand, the same matter-of-fact style as "baker" or "carpenter." He wrote it like it was a normal occupation. Which, to be fair, in 1892 Odessa, it may have been.' Manifest has been unable to determine what Nikolai Vexler did for a living either before or after immigration. Census records from 1900 list his occupation as 'various,' which she notes is 'characteristically unhelpful.' 'I've looked at hundreds of ship manifests and I've never seen "trouble" listed as an occupation,' said genealogist and immigration records specialist Barbara Entry. 'I've seen "none," I've seen illegible entries, I've seen obvious errors. But "trouble" suggests the officer looked at this man and made a judgment call. I want to know what that man looked like.' Manifest has added the occupation to her family tree database. The software auto-categorized it under 'Other - Unspecified.' She has petitioned the software company to add 'trouble' as a valid occupation category. 'There had to have been more of them,' she said. 'Nikolai can't have been the only one.'