Throughout your family research it is likely that some of your ancestors were in service.
The 19th century census returns all list 'female servants' 'male servants' or 'general servant' in the occupations column - and it is notable that all but the lowliest households would employ servants, belieing today's assumption that anyone who employed servants was de facto, rich.
In the cities it is apparent that many young servants were employed many miles from their places of birth - attracted by the new opportunities presented by the huge growth in urban development.
Some servants were placed in homes or businesses where they could further their chosen professions; one of my ancestors involved in the brewing business placed his teenage son in a pub many miles from his home, where he could learn the intricacies of running a beerhouse.
Farms in North West England employed many Irish workers - the wives and children of these workers would often be found as servants working on the same farms.
Having established that your ancestor had been a servant, what sort of lifestyle did they live?
Jessie Boucherett, in the 'Englishwoman's Review of 1873' gives the following account of the work of a housemaid in Victorian England:
‘A housemaid is usually required to begin work soon after 6am and goes to bed soon after 10pm. She has for rest, half-an-hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner, and half-an-hour each for tea and supper, in all two hours and a-half for meals, and in the afternoon she is generally required to do needlework for an hour and a-half, which may fairly be regarded as rest, giving altogether four hours' rest. This leaves twelve hours of actual work, longer by two hours than the day's work of factory women, and longer than the usual day's work of a shopwoman.
‘The housemaid's work is besides of a more severe nature, she has to carry coals and water, and to lift heavy weights in making beds, and emptying baths, etc., but the comparatively fresh air in which she does her work may fairly be set against the greater exertion.
'On Sunday, the factory-hand and the shopwoman both rest completely; the housemaid only partially; and on Monday, in families where the washing is done at home, she is often required to rise at three or four in the morning to help the laundrymaid.
‘It is therefore evident that even the maidservant who iis fortunate enough to get a place as a housemaid in a gentleman's family, works harder than a shopwoman or a factory-hand. And it is well known that a housemaid's work is considered lighter than that of a cook, kitchenmaid, scullerymaid, or dairymaid . . .
There is plenty of information on the daily lives of servants in Victorian England on the internet.
Useful sites include:
http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/mrs-beeton/features/victorian-servants-in-progress
http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/history/victorian-domestic-servant.htm
An extremely informative book is The Rise and Fall of The Victorian Servant by Pamela Horn.
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