Your first question is the right question
What is a “bloomer”? And what does it have to do with Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle?
The answer to the second question is “Nothing! And that’s how I knew to look for another Samuel Tuttle!” The answer to the first question depends on context1, but our context was the census record for the Tuttle family in 1850.
Up until the point where I actually looked at the documents I had collected, I believed that my 4th-great-grandfather was Reverend Samuel L. Tuttle (1815-1866), who also lived in Morris County, New Jersey. But the 1850 Census listed my ancestor’s occupation as “Bloomer” and not “Minister” which made me start questioning all of those inherited trees I had been collecting up to that point.
Who Was Samuel L Tuttle?
Samuel L. Tuttle (1823-1881) was the grandfather of John Jackson Tuttle (1872-1963), one of My Sixteen. Samuel married Mary Zindle, the granddaughter of Leopold Zindle, who you might remember from two previous stories (Wavetops: Leopold Zindle and Leopold Zindle: The Story Behind the Story).
“Bloomery” refers to an old process of smelting iron ore. The use of blast furnaces to make iron was already replacing the outdated pit and chimney method in 1860, according to an answer on WikiTree.2 The 1860 Census reflects this, recording Samuel’s occupation as “Forgeman” – which Ancestry has transcribed as “Largeman.” (Another example of the need to review original documents.)
In 1870 and 1880, he is just listed as “laborer,” which doesn’t tell us a lot. But at least by studying the other household members, we can be reasonably sure this is the right family.
If you look at that 1860 record, you can see Mary’s brother, Joseph Zindle, living with them; and the 1880 includes Mary’s sister, Abby (Zindle) Starr. The connection to Joseph is important because I don’t have any direct evidence showing Mary to be the daughter of Charles Zindle and Lydia Hall. She married Samuel in 1846, and so she doesn’t appear with her parents in the 1850 Census – but Joseph does!
Finding Samuel’s Parents
Samuel has a similar problem to Mary, in that he would have probably been in his father’s household in 1840, which did not name individual household members. So I needed to find another document somewhere that could tell me his parents’ names.
Another descendant of John Jackson Tuttle, Rob Trautz, found that document in 2010 and sent me a transcript of it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a digitized version of the original:
Samuel L. TUTTLE’s death certificate.
Samuel Landon TUTTLE
Age: 59 yr, 1 mos, 4 days
Occupation: Laborer
Birthplace: Horse Pond, Rockaway Twp.
Last place of residence: Rockaway
How long resident of this State: Life
Place of death: Rockaway Morris Co.
Father’s name: Squire TUTTLE, country of birth: NJ
Mother’s name: Mary BURNETT, coutry of birth: NJ
Date of death: 5-May-1882
Cause of death: Bright’s disease of the kidneys
Length of illness: 8 weeks
Medical attendant: John W. Jackson, resided Rockaway
Date of death certificate: 8-May-1882
Undertaker: John Jones, Rockaway NJ
Place of burial: First Presbyterian Church of Rockaway Cemetery, NJ
The only problem I find with this piece of evidence is that the record I can see on Ancestry in the New Jersey, Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971 database gives his date of death as “8 May 1881” – which is close enough to be a transcription error. (I have also seen a pattern before where the index records and the actual death certificates were a year off, but I don’t know what causes that error.)
If that date of death and his age at death are correct, then this document says that Samuel’s birthdate is Friday, April 4, 1823.
Wavetops: Squire Tuttle and Mary Burnett
As I suspected, there is very little direct evidence to confirm that these are Samuel’s parents. However, Squire Tuttle appears on the 1840 and 1850 Census, and there is a marriage record for Squire Tuttle and Mary Burnett in Morris County dated 28 Sep 1812. From there, I have leads to investigate for Samuel’s siblings (he seems to be the youngest of four, a brother, Zenas Tuttle, and sisters Esther (or Hester) and Jane).
But I’m suspicious of the name “Squire” – usually that’s a title, and as a given name, it is unique enough that I should easily find more records for him. I wonder if the reason I haven’t been able to turn up more records might be because he had a middle name that transcribers or clerks mistook for his given name, and I need to find out what it was and search for that?
Whatever the case may be, I have a lot of work to do before I can start adding Samuel’s family to WikiTree! (But his descendants are well-represented!)
Mightier Acorns 
Say hello, cousin!