Re: French word ?

In article <EGpfj.3208$jX4.2036@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Wes Groleau <groleau+news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> This is a query from a Spanish teacher to other teachers
> on a mailing list:
> 
>  > My father has a working knowledge of French and a couple of
>  > dictionaries but he is stumped by a word. In retirement his
>  > hobby has been genealogical research. Looking through Quebec
>  > census records from the 1880s he came to a profession listed
>  > as "golfat". Can anyone offer some insight?
> 
> If there's  an answer here, I can relay it to him.
> A French teacher married to a French citizen has already
> said he doesn't know.

Hard to say without seeing the original, but you could 
misread two letters of "soldat"...