Don't all of our family's come from farmers?

[ET1 SS]

I read some folks saying things like: "my family has been farming for three generations", or "my family has been farming for four generations".

Now I wonder how important this is.

I grew-up farming [cattle, almond orchards, share-cropping orchards], and went away from it for military service. My father still farms [cattle]. My sister married into grapes and they still do it. Both sets of my grandparents were dairymen. The farthest we can trace my paternal bloodline goes back to 1790 in Missouri an ancestor of mine, who I am sure farmed between shooting at indians and trapping. My maternal ancestors go back to William Bradford, with lots of dirt tilling in between.

Now I did run a goatdairy for a few years, then went back into the Navy. Now I am trying farming again.

So how do I know, [or how do I figure out] how many generations of my familiy were farmers?

[Ravenlost]

I guess you should start by tracing your ancestry.

[ET1 SS]

So if one side can be traced 10 generations, and the other side can be traced 15?

[DaleK]

Ours on the paternal side has been traced back to roughly 1200 with farmers ever since. I think considering what was likely before then, when someone asks how many generations of our family have farmed, it's not unrealistic for me to answer, "All of them."

[MorrisonCorner]

My family on one side were fishermen... not farmers. We were weavers, travelers, sailors... only one side of my family can face "farming" back any distance, and that side of the family quit farming in 1950. I don't see anything particularly noble about "farming" per se. For the most part, in my family that means "too darn settled to up and do something else."

[Alice In TX/MO]

My dad was a professional house painter. Mom was a bookkeeper, although she had a degree in geology.

Daddy's father was a very poor sharecropper.

Mom's was the first international editor for World Oil Magazine and a business owner in Austin, Texas.

[Westwood]

From 1655 on the Enyart side in New Amsterdam, now New York. Longer than that on the Cherokee side. Sadly, this last generation thinks they're "too good" for that heritage. I had a 23 year career in banking bur FINALLY got away from it and back to the land. Still working off the place for a living after loosing my butt on a goat dairy. Slowly but surely getting back to my roots.

Not everyone who came from the Old World to the New were farmers. Europe had quite a few largish and very well settled cities at the time of the discovery of the Americas and a lot of those folks had not farmed for many generations.

For that matter, as the Frontier House folks tried to point out, quite a few of the homesteaders here in the States did not come from farming backgrounds. Back to the land movements have been coming and going for centuries.

.....Alan.

[seedspreader]

I think it was best said...

"Life began in a Garden."

[FarmboyBill]

My great grandad supposedily threw his wife down a well in germany then immergrated here in 1880 thereabouts. grandpa was born in 1880 and came here in 1885, surley in the company of some kinda of family. Perhaps Great grandpa sold the farm to get the money to come over here and wifie didnt like it , so he gave her the heve ho. Dont know. He, according to my dad farmed, but by the time dad knew him, he had degenertated to cutting the wood and such like, so he may never have been much of a farmer. A tornado blew his house away at the turn of the century. Grandpa worked out for a one legged, one armed man on his farm along with farming his dads farm, 200 acres on G grandpa and 120 on the other place. The man got ran over by a runaway team while he was trying to jump back in a wagon and fell underneith it. After awhile, Grandpaw married the widow and they had 4 kids, 2 which died. One of which was my dad. Together, off and on they reached as much as 400 acres, not all under the plow, but all with horses till 1942 or thereabouts when they got the tractor I have here now. Dad still lives on his farm, the farm his mom had when she married my grandpa. I started farming in 1969 living only 2 yrs in St Joe Mo

[Sparticle]

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

So how do I know, [or how do I figure out] how many generations of my familiy were farmers?

If you go to a geneological library or perhaps the census records online, people listed their professions. I'm close to Houston and we have the Clayton library. most of the census records listed my family as farmers, but there was a gambler on there too. There were preachers and some other interesting professions. I'd say head to the library or try out geneology.com. I haven't done geneology for a LONG time but I think it was the 1890 federal census that burned but there are still some local records. So, for each 10 years find the name of your ancestor and go look at their line on the census record. I can't say for sure that all the census records had profession or that even if there was a column for profession it was filled in. But I know I recall seeing profession on some of them.

Also, you should be able to find out how much land they had and what their annual income was. Good luck in your search.

[lilmommajnn]

I grew up on a farm part of my life but My mom pretty much had to learn it form the ground up. My dad's parents didn't farm (as far as I know). Mom's parents probably did at some point but she didn't grow up farming.

[LagoVistaFarm]

Ok, I'm bad but I've met so many people that tell me they have been doing something for so many years. That's their claim for being an expert. If they can't let their product speak for themselves I'm somewaht inclined to answer. So you didn't learn too much in all those years.

[Westwood]

Only if their experience didn't lead to self sufficency. Many of us have been there, done that, back slid and hope accomplish it again. If they have attidude about their accomplisments there is a "comeuppance" with their name on it lurking around the corner to humble them. (Me included.)

[MorrisonCorner]

Originally Posted by ZealYouthGuy

I think it was best said...

"Life began in a Garden."

Maybe.. but it rather quickly moved out of it when it was revealed that following sheep was way easier than weeding... and wool made better cloth than fig leaves.

[jnap31]

Great grandpa in KY was a railroad man but he was mostly a farmer he plowed his gardens with Mules into the 80's and grew most of his food, only time he ever left more than 30 miles from home was to dig potatoes in Maine during the depression.I am pretty sure his parents and mostly scotch Irish ancestors were mostly farmers. My dads family were Italian peahsents and raised all their own food before selling the farm and moving to Long island then they did landscaping for a living.

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by MorrisonCorner

Maybe.. but it rather quickly moved out of it when it was revealed that following sheep was way easier than weeding... and wool made better cloth than fig leaves.

LOL, yup, can't argue that.

[insanity]

Thinking they mean there family farmed all there lives (for however long) and that they gained all the needed information along the way as they grew up doing the same.Leaving to go do something else for a while like serving in the military wouldn't matter much as long as they grew up farming they would have the information they need to continue to do so when they want.

With my family i cant claim such.My grandfather died when i was 8.He was the last of our farmer generation.My mom raises horses but doesn't no much else.So I'm starting from scratch.Thank goodness for the information that can be learned on the net.With out that a person would be hard pressed to make a go of any real farming/self sufficient life style.Unless there family had some skills that could have been passed down to them.

[MississippiSlim]

My family were rural but not necessarily farmers . I mean they famred f=but they did other things too. My parents had a farm but my Mother taught and my Father was a Towboat Captain. My Paternal Grandfatehr was a jack of all trades. Trapper, Sharecropper, fisherman, boatman, bootlegger, whatever it took to feed the family.

My maternal grandsires were all farmers and manual laborers.

[Charleen]

I think everyone has a different idea of what a farm is. And they are all probably correct.
Farms can be dairy cow, dairy goats, beefers, fruit orchards, grape growers, apiary, cash crops, maple products, poultry, etc.
Way back when...a farmer dabbled in everything because he was completely (or pretty darn close) self-sufficient. And who didn't have at least a Victory Garden?

Neither of my parents had an interest in farming, it skipped their generation. But they built their home on family farm land, so they never did get totally away from it.