Traveller and Gypsy, What Is The Difference

newforest

newforest

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Mar 15, 2008
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Sorry for my total ignorance.

But i think a traveller is someone who has chosen that way of life and lives in a caravan and maybe has a car.

A gypsy is someone born into that way of like and has the romany caravan and the horse.

I know that is very basic but i am curious since my filly's mum came from "travellers" and is a ride and drive.
 
the travellers i know call themselves gypsies! i think it's the same thing, only that it is not PC (and derogatory!) to call them gypsies, really!

your fillies mum must have come from travellers, eg the people with the caravans and white vans who descend on a village green with a bunch of tethered horses etc.
 
Quote 'Sorry for my total ignorance.

But i think a traveller is someone who has chosen that way of life and lives in a caravan and maybe has a car.

A gypsy is someone born into that way of like and has the romany caravan and the horse.

I know that is very basic but i am curious since my filly's mum came from "travellers" and is a ride and drive. '


I agree new forest. I think the travellers are thieving b******s who steal my precious pet cockerels, donkey cart, wheelbarrow and lots of other bits and bobs I can't take home and police won't do f*** all about them. Real Gypsies seem few and far between nowadays. We get some lovely 'new age' traveller gypsies staying near us sometimes, they're honest, nice, friendly and made welcome in the village.
 
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I think travellers are the nice ones who are honest, care for there horses and try to make an honest living etc

Gypsies - opposite of everything typed above
 
Alternative communities!

I think true gypsies have Roma blood and a very strict code of conduct particularly for their women folk, some travellers do some don't.


New age travellers are a different thing all together. I have some friends who's daughter now 'travels' (in a converted horsebox!) Father is Doctor who in his retirement travels with a Christian charity to poor parts of the world to operate on those who could afford or access treatment, daughter a Philosophy graduate is a 'traveller'.


'Travellers' we have locally have great ponies our farrier looks after.

Other 'travellers' visited our red diesel tank and 'borrowed' some!

Just like the rest of us really,some good some bad
 
Ouch Pauline :frown: looks like you've had some troubles with thieves where you are, that is horrible.

Strictly speaking, the current (these things do change just like "coloured" did) correct term is GRT which stands for "Gypsy Roma Traveller". In other words, it's a cover all for people of travelling cultures :wink:

As most have spotted, there are different denominations within the GRT culture and the key is to find out how individual people refer to their cultural background eg I work with many families who call themselves "Irish Travellers" and "Romas" and also "Gypsies". The problems arise when (usually) non-Traveller people use words in way that is clearly meant to be derogatory and this is why calling GRT peoples "Gypsies" is often regarded as offensive.... it's all about intention:wink:

My (extensive and longstanding) experience of working with people from travelling cultures is that the majority of them are lovely, open and honest people who feel wary of non-Travellers at first as they experience so much blatant racism. Like any group of people, there are also a minority who break rules, laws etc.... but I have known more of them in other groups than in any GRT communities.

I feel passionately about this as it's a racist issue and if the stereotyping and prejudice against GRT people and their lifestyle was challenged then I am certain we would not hold such bad feelings as I see in so many people against this culture.

It's grossly inappropriate to describe people by their cultural background in isolation and to push our (often ignorant) ideas about them onto not only them but generations of children who will grow up not questionning this behaviour either. Think Alf Garnet - he wouldn't be allowed on TV in this supposedly enlightened age.


GRT people of all denominations are trying very hard to maintain their cultural values and beliefs despite the pressure to conform to current thinking in this country.... yet we can accommodate all kinds of different religious beliefs?

Sorry for my rant... I've seen wrong on both sides but in fairness they have an uphill battle against the extremes of prejudice they face and that's not right.
 
I could be completely wrong, but AFAIK Traveller is the politically correct term for a Romany Gypsy. At some point in time "Gypsy" became a derogatory term for someone who was scruffy, or more likely poor, and/or badly educated. Which wasn't fair on the Romany community, so the word "Traveller" was brought into use.

Trouble is, nowadays Traveller is used in a derogatory manner to describe people who aren't Romanies but people who've abandoned 'Society' to follow an alternate lifestyle - ie the New Age Travellers, or what used to be called Hippies.
 
I always thought Travelers choose to live in caravans either on sites or moving from place to place (some have horses) and Gypsies are those who travel with their horses in ornate vans, there are less and less Gypsies about now but still plenty of Travelers.
 
I thought gypsies are those of Romany ancestry, with the horse drawn caravans, and that they're the ones who are generally decent people. I think "travellers" are of Irish ancestry, and have little respect for settled people, and they tend to be the people who cause the problems and get all gypsies/travellers a bad name.

As in all walks of life, I believe there are good and bad, and the bad ones get all the rest a bad reputation, as unfortunately happens with all races, religions, social backgrounds etc. I wish so much that we could all live in relative harmony, and respect those from different cultures etc, while they also respect our way of life and traditions.

Within a 5/10 radius of where I live there are several communities of "settled" travellers living on sites, and they don't appear to cause too problems as I can't remember having heard much about them. I once met one who kept coloured cobs in the field next door to a pony I used to ride, and he seemed a friendly, decent chap. I only found out afterwards he was a gypsy. On the other hand, some travellers recently set up camp illegally only a few miles away from my Mum, and there was a spate of quite a few burglaries in her road, and she lives in a smallish road with maybe 30/35 houses. The burglaries stopped after they had been moved on. Coincidence?
 
From my 'old life' experience (serving Court documents for eviction notice hearings, etc) there was a difference.

If I attended a Gypsy site to do a Serve, then I was generally safe. They were polite, friendly, and asked if the council could provide a skip for them to put their rubbish into. They were always proud to show me their horses. (I always had a look at their horses and made a fuss of them!) ;) They usually moved on before the hearing, and left the site spotless.

If I attended a TRAVELLER site...I was usually met with tirades of abuse, foul-mouthed kids, threatened, (with weapons, more than once!) and feared for my life on occasions. Often involved police attendance due to 'breach of the peace'. It ALWAYS resulted in a MASSIVE mess left behind for the tax-payers to pay to have cleared up!

One shouldn't discriminate....But I met withand dealt with and had rapport with both. I know which ones I preferred!
 
Gypsy's are usually classed as a race of people who have long and proud customs.Travelers i am not so sure about most appear to live on permanent sites now which would make the term traveler redundant. In Scotland we also have Tinks but they are few and far between now. Going back to the fifties when i was just a youngster my father was the local blacksmith and we used to let the tinks sleep in the smiddy and dad would give them a days work whilst mum would make them some food. They were always asked into the kitchen but never came in. My wife who was on another farm as a girl remembers playing with them and coming home smelling of wood smoke from their bivies. I was told tinks go back to the clan days and were people who did not have a clan and wandered from place to place i dont know if that is true or not. We occasionally get a true gypsy comes our way with the van and black and white cobs although i havent seen them for a while i used to give them fresh water and have the craic. Some travelers can leave a terrible mess sometimes.
 
pauline w said:
Quote 'Sorry for my total ignorance.

But i think a traveller is someone who has chosen that way of life and lives in a caravan and maybe has a car.

A gypsy is someone born into that way of like and has the romany caravan and the horse.

I know that is very basic but i am curious since my filly's mum came from "travellers" and is a ride and drive. '


I agree new forest. I think the travellers are thieving b******s who steal my precious pet cockerels, donkey cart, wheelbarrow and lots of other bits and bobs I can't take home and police won't do f*** all about them. Real Gypsies seem few and far between nowadays. We get some lovely 'new age' traveller gypsies staying near us sometimes, they're honest, nice, friendly and made welcome in the village.
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^^^^^ THAT, lol. x
 
My fillies mum was purchased when she was passing through a town, i think they just fell in love and bought her. From what i could tell she was pulling a wagon.
Fillies dad was shipped over from Ireland and he's Irish Cob/Shire

In her blood should be "loves hacking":wink:
 
A Gypsy is a person of Romany blood, family is very important to the Gypsy and they hold very honourable and traditional views.

If a plate down on the floor for a dog to eat from..this is 'mochodi' which means it is so dirty, no amount of washing would ever make this plate clean enough for them to eat from again!

A Gypsy man takes care of his family........this does not mean he 'Controls' everything, it just means he is the head of the family and he brings the money in (in any way he can) there is no conflict between him and his wife, they just have clear and defined rules.

They are part of a family and they 'pull' together when times are tough.
 
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Shetlander said:
Ouch Pauline :frown: looks like you've had some troubles with thieves where you are, that is horrible.

Strictly speaking, the current (these things do change just like "coloured" did) correct term is GRT which stands for "Gypsy Roma Traveller". In other words, it's a cover all for people of travelling cultures :wink:

As most have spotted, there are different denominations within the GRT culture and the key is to find out how individual people refer to their cultural background eg I work with many families who call themselves "Irish Travellers" and "Romas" and also "Gypsies". The problems arise when (usually) non-Traveller people use words in way that is clearly meant to be derogatory and this is why calling GRT peoples "Gypsies" is often regarded as offensive.... it's all about intention:wink:

My (extensive and longstanding) experience of working with people from travelling cultures is that the majority of them are lovely, open and honest people who feel wary of non-Travellers at first as they experience so much blatant racism. Like any group of people, there are also a minority who break rules, laws etc.... but I have known more of them in other groups than in any GRT communities.

I feel passionately about this as it's a racist issue and if the stereotyping and prejudice against GRT people and their lifestyle was challenged then I am certain we would not hold such bad feelings as I see in so many people against this culture.

It's grossly inappropriate to describe people by their cultural background in isolation and to push our (often ignorant) ideas about them onto not only them but generations of children who will grow up not questionning this behaviour either. Think Alf Garnet - he wouldn't be allowed on TV in this supposedly enlightened age.


GRT people of all denominations are trying very hard to maintain their cultural values and beliefs despite the pressure to conform to current thinking in this country.... yet we can accommodate all kinds of different religious beliefs?

Sorry for my rant... I've seen wrong on both sides but in fairness they have an uphill battle against the extremes of prejudice they face and that's not right.
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Couldn't have put it better myself :)

My mum was previously the Co-Ordinator for the Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service in County Durham, I was a Media Resources Officer there for a while too.

A cause I feel quite strongly about, it's racism through ignorance. I still do work with Show Racism the Red Card when I get chance too.
 
Cleanboots....not heard that word in ages...Mochodi. :)

I once had to interview and take a statement from a Gypsy girl in her late teens. Her parents remained present, in their caravan, where I could have eaten off the floor. It was beautiful and immaculately clean. They were really lovely welcoming people. One of the nicest families I ever interviewed. :) We spent a good deal of time talking about her amazing collection of coloured horse ornaments. :D
 
Midnight_Ashes said:
Couldn't have put it better myself :)

My mum was previously the Co-Ordinator for the Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service in County Durham, I was a Media Resources Officer there for a while too.

A cause I feel quite strongly about, it's racism through ignorance. I still do work with Show Racism the Red Card when I get chance too.
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Yes.
 
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Kis Vihar said:
Cleanboots....not heard that word in ages...Mochodi. :)

I once had to interview and take a statement from a Gypsy girl in her late teens. Her parents remained present, in their caravan, where I could have eaten off the floor. It was beautiful and immaculately clean. They were really lovely welcoming people. One of the nicest families I ever interviewed. :) We spent a good deal of time talking about her amazing collection of coloured horse ornaments. :D
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Everything has to be clean.. pots are not washed in the sink, if you put a plate in the sink it will be thrown away, it is a tin bowl with steaming water to wash pots.
Food is never prepared in the sink, this again would be 'Mochodi' (Dirty)
Hand bags are never placed on a worktop or surface............this is 'Mochadi'

If something has been on the floor, it should stay on the floor.
 
Gypsies I have no problem with but 'travellers' I do.

I have gone from being tolerant and ultra liberal to becoming more and more wary the older I get.

I have every right to 'judge' based on my life experience. It'd be foolish not to. It's how we all learn to limit risks in life and get ahead or just survive. I'm not one of those who says we shouldn't judge as judging merely means having an opinion.

In my experience I see little respect and consideration for people outside of their travelling community so I therefore am wary and expect the worst yet hope for the best from 'travellers'. Gradually That hope has dwindled and my expectations of the worst has increased. I make no apology for my judgements based on my own experience rather than plucked from The Daily Mail.
 
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