# How many generations removed are you from farmers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062 "2012-07-12T23:53:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/61 "2012-07-13T14:29:23Z")
My old man grew up on a working farm in South Dakota. None of his seven siblings followed in their parents’ footsteps. Wait-- my aunt married a farmer, but then he died in the 70s, and she hasn’t been a farmer or farmer’s wife since; she’s now more of a big city gal, if you can call Sioux Falls big city livin’. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/62 "2012-07-13T14:38:08Z")
In terms of direct ancestry, it goes back to a great grandfather on my dad’s side, and a great-great-grandfather on my mom’s. Both of them had children who became farmers/ranchers as well. Relatives of mine still farm on the same land in Missouri, but they are distant cousins, and a generation ahead of me. It’s possible that by now they’ have kids who’ve gone into farming. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/63 "2012-07-13T14:39:10Z")
My dad grew up farming and left to join the military. My moms dad was raised on a farm and worked in the oilfields afterward. I lived on my uncle’s chicken farm for two years while mom was in nursing anesthesia school. I worked summers on the chicken farm afterward. But most of my teen years were spent in town. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/64 "2012-07-13T14:43:06Z")
My maternal grandparents were farmers in California’s central valley. I only knew them as raisin growers, but he had a wider diversity of crops when Mom was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/65 "2012-07-13T15:24:06Z")
Nobody in my family was a farmer back to my grandparents, although they did (on both sides) have gardens, albeit only at what you consider a hobby level (my parents also gave it a try for a few years, although I don’t remember much actually being grown). ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_Ferguson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/97f17d/32.png) [@Harvey\_Ferguson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_Ferguson)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/66 "2012-07-13T15:50:01Z")
I grew up on my grandfathers 100 acre farm in New Brunswick, Canada. It ceased being a working farm around 1970, I was 16. One of my brothers owns most of it now and grows vegetables, strawberries and raspberries, no livestock. I own and live on an 8 acre corner lot and another brother has a 2 acre lot on the same original farm property. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/67 "2012-07-13T15:57:34Z")
My grandfather owned a dairy but bought the milk off others; he processed and delivered it (and was famous regionally for his ice cream). I don’t know of anyone who farmed as an occupation, although various relations have had orchards and such (including an almond orchard in Romania). My wife’s family, however, are farming stock; both of her parents grew up on farms and she still has at least one cousin who own a farm. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/68 "2012-07-13T16:22:12Z")
My mother grew up on a working farm growing wheat and sunflowers although most of the income was from swine production. Most of her brothers are still farmers. Dad lived up on what might be called a hobby farm prior to the death of his mother and being abandoned by his dad at age six. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/69 "2012-07-13T16:40:17Z")
One line of ancestors may have been farmers in the Albany, New York area all the way back to the Dutch days, exepting at least one silversmith, and even he may have farmed also. My grandfather who was born in 1876 probably grew up on a farm until they sent him to NYC for school at the age of 8. He went on to study architecture at Columbia and then moved out to California to help his brother run his hardware store in Hollywood just before the movie people moved out there. My maternal grandparents grew up on farms in the Ozarks. But as adults, they didn’t actually farm, but did have a big field they rented out as horse pasture, while that grandfather worked in a sort of general store and was even county clerk for a long while. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/70 "2012-07-13T16:43:32Z")
My home growing up was on a farm, but my father died when I was six years old, and the farm equipment was sold off and the land rented, so I never actively participated in farming activities. My parents (mother and stepfather, now 87 and 92) still live on the farm, and rent the land to my brother, who is a farmer, but the only one of the eight siblings who went into farming. His son, my nephew, has just started farming. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/71 "2012-07-13T17:35:31Z")
I’m about 90% certain my maternal grandparents were farmers. I know my grandmother’s family was _poor_. Hunting raccoons for sustenance poor. So poor that, despite living in Arkansas, weren’t racist because they sure as heck weren’t doing any better than any black people. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/72 "2012-07-13T17:53:51Z")
Of my eight great- grandparents, none worked farms, and only one had parents that owned a Frisian Farm. And his parents sold that farm to start a paint-making business. Otherwise, it’s all entrepreneurs and engineers and doctors and stockbrokers. At least three of them knighted. (Somebody stop me. I’m such a snob when it comes to my ancestors. That’s because I don’t have any accomplishments of my own to brag about) ) I did have one great-grandfather, a factory owner, who had romantic ideas about " going back to nature" and participated in a kind of [Walden-like](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden) experiment for a while. My exes parents, though, his mom (now 80 years old) came from a poor farmer family, and she still had to work as a seasonal farmers hand. She also had a large vegetable plot behind her house that she worked all her life and my ex still owns and works it. My husband’s family; nope, no farmers there either. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/73 "2012-07-13T17:55:13Z")
Both of my parents grew up on working farms. We always had a big garden when I was a kid, and I have a garden in my backyard now. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/74 "2012-07-13T18:04:10Z")
My grandmother was from a farm family, some branches of which are still farming. When she married my grandfather, he was farming, but, as soon as the WWI draft ended, he gave up farming and went back to his actual occupation as a builder. He was only farming to stay out of the draft. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/75 "2012-07-13T19:06:35Z")
My grandfather (Dad’s side) grew up on a working farm in Alabama. Ran it himself until he enlisted in the US Army during WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/76 "2012-07-13T19:28:40Z")
One set of Great-grandparents were ‘Gentlemen farmers’ (my Great-Grandpa was 6’6" , and wore a top hat whenever feasible-photos of him are hilarious 😃 )- they owned a rather large farm which has been in the family for several hundred years, where my Grandpa was brought up (his half-brother still runs it). My Mum was largely brought up there after my Grandma (not from a farming family) buggered off. Originally my Grandpa was going to take on a large section of it, but it wound up falling through due to family drama, so Mum spent the rest of her childhood in a village, which gradually got absorbed into a city. Almost all my other relatives on that side are still farmers. When I was a kid, my Mum grew basically all our fruit and vegetables, as well as chickens for eggs and meat (briefly rabbits for meat too, until they gave up and sold them all as pets), selling the spare veg and eggs at the gate. I don’t think I grew up on a farm though, and my Dad worked elsewhere. My Dad’s side all worked down t’Lancashire Mills, though I’d imagine they were farmers previously. Prob’ly peasants. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/77 "2012-07-13T21:17:27Z")
All 4 grandparents grew up on farms, none of them made farming their primary source of income as adults. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/78 "2012-07-13T21:59:43Z")
My dad worked on his family farm but he was a teacher by profession. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/79 "2012-07-13T22:24:06Z")
My stepdad grew up on a farm until his dad died. Then his family moved to another state and lived on his mother’s teacher salary. I think most of the rest of my family lived in urban areas as soon as they got off the boat. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062/80 "2012-07-13T23:40:36Z")
When dairy cows develop mammary infections, they have to be milked by hand, and the milk given to the barn cats. It occurs to me that I’ve probably manipulated more bovine tits than human. I don’t know how I feel about this realization. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-generations-removed-are-you-from-farmers/628062.md?page=5)