Four generations. My grandmother’s parents were the first to leave the farm in the Alleghenies for the big city (Pittsburgh) in the 1880s, where Great-Granddad became a mail carrier. His parents were farmer/merchants, which I guess is the point where my ancestors started to peel away from the land. Prior to them, farmers all the way back to Ireland and Germany.
So I put “other.” Four is more than three, but it’s a definite figure for which I have the documentation.
Five of my eight great-grandparents grew up in working farms. None of my grandparents did. Several of my great-grandparents specifically took the jobs they did in order to leave the farm behind.
My mom grew up Amish on a subsistance farm and left during WW2 to work in an aircraft factory, doing her rumspringa combined with patriotism. After the war, she went to Wheaton College in Illinois where she met my Dad while he was catching some classes while in the Army.
My paternal grandparents had quite an extensive garden and orchard, and chickens that they started during WW1 [the whole victory garden thing] and kept gardening until they both passed on. I learned to can foods from my mother and my grandmothers cook using our own produce. My brother and I grew up weeding the garden and sneaking fruit from the orchard.
mrAru and I live on a couple acres and raise our own chickens, geese and guinea fowl for meat and eggs, and do a bit of veggie gardening and have had sheep [but they were very tasty…] and I grow my own culinary herbs. I think my mint patch is going to take over the east coast. If we purchased the 44 acres that went up for sale that is wrapped around 2 sides of our property, and invested in a second stock shed and fencing, and did some woods clearing we could actually manage probably 60-75% subsistence in a pinch, though it would probably cost us close to a quarter million for the land and improvements. Though we would opt for buying a steer and a couple lambs and a couple pigs at a stock auction every year instead of breeding our own.
mrAru’s mother was raised on a farm in Craig Mo, and about 20 or so years ago it was donated to the state, it is known for one of the patches of original prairie that has never been changed for agricultural purposes. They got indoor plumbing and electricity in the 1950s =) He was raised from about 4 years old to 12 or 13 on a grape farm in Kirman Ca owned by his aunt and uncle and helped in the fields for spare money doing whatever the hired workers were doing, ranging from planting new grape plants, installing grape stakes and fences, trimming vines, harvesting.
My grandmother grew up on a farm in what is now Poland. She said that her father considered farming the only honest way to make a living.
What an interesting question! I am three generations removed from farming. My great grandfather made his living as a rancher.
No farmers on either side going back through my great-grandparents. Doctors, pharmacists, sales, yes. Farmers/ranchers, no.
I think possibly maybe some of my great-grandparents were farmers back in Poland. I have vague memories of being told that one side of the family came from farming and the other side were miners. My maternal grandparents had a small patch that grew tomatoes and cucumbers semi-successfully, and my mother has always had a veggie garden in the back yard, but never enough to supply more than the immediate family. So I took the “honestly don’t know” option.
I voted [other] in the poll before noticing it was talking about America.
I like in England - I’ve only comprehensively researched my ancestry along the paternal line - none of those ancestors were farmers - there were confectioners, bakers, builders, carpenters, stonemasons, until you get about 8 generations back and there’s a peasant farmer. He lived within walking distance of my current home.
On my maternal side, I’ve found coal miners, railwaymen, fishermen and factory workers, but the records are incomplete.
My dad grew up on a working farm, raising chickens and growing watermelon and feed crops in southern DE. He got out as soon as he got out of high school, though. That side of the family is pretty much farmers straight back to when they got off the boat from England/Ireland/Scotland pre-1776.
“Other”: One of my great-grandparents grew up (i.e., was a child) on a working farm; his father (my great-great-grandfather) was a farmer, and perhaps half of my seven other great-great grandfathers were as well.
I believe one of my great-great-grandfathers had a farm in downstate NY, but that about as far back in real family history as I go.
My mother’s father was a mechanic, but the family made it through the Depression because they had some land–they raised crops, pigs & chickens. We visited relatives on her mother’s side up in Indiana–on a farm with a red barn! But my maternal g-grandfather carried a hod…
I think my father’s parents came from farming families back in Ireland. But they moved to the US to work in textile mills–& join the police force. No moving back to the farm for them. (Besides, farming takes capital.)
I answered the third choice because my grandfather owned a medium sized apple orchard, but my mom could have been a subsistence farmer if she had planted the right mixture. Instead, less than 20% of what we ate was our own, and the majority of the acres were monoculture that she futilely tried to sell and never did get much cash from. Would have been better financially to plant stuff for our own consumption, even though I would have hated it, being a vegetable-hating child.
My great grandparents (mother’s mother’s parents) were farmers in TN. No idea about other great grandparents.
On father’s side, great, great grandparents were farmers in Kansas.
My grandparents were not actually farmers but my great-uncle and aunt were, of the same generation. Grandpa was a doctor.
The story I always like to tell is, I went to India for the second time when I was fifteen, and stayed in Panipat with some beloved cousins. My Pitaji (granduncle) still lived on the farm, although my Biiji (Grandaunt) lived with her son in the city. Pitaji used to walk 3-6 miles (I don’t remember how many exactly) every morning into the city with the yoke on his shoulders, with two huge pails of fresh milk he had just milked. His daughter-in-law would take the milk and make fresh yogurt, butter, and cheese. I’d help. Then every night he’d walk back with the empty yoke to do it all over again.
He was over seventy at this time. I don’t think I could even lift the yoke.
I never met my real grandparents. These people are the ones I thought of as my grandma and grandpa, and I loved them (and still love them, even though they have passed on) very much.
My father was raised as a ‘poor dirt farmer’ in Georgia.
My mother was more of a town girl.
Grandmother on my dad’s side was a nurse, but grew up on a dairy farm. Many of my relatives on that side are still farmers; I’ve gone out to the farm a few times. Not sure about my mom’s parents; dad’s dad definitely did not.
I answered Other, because I do know, and it doesn’t fit any of the other choices.
I am certain that all four of my grandparents were born in large cities. Actually the same large city, Mumbai, then called Bombay.
I have a Great Uncle and cousins who are farmers. My parents and Grandparents did not farm, but Dad, my brothers and I all ended up in the Agribusiness industry. Just, Dad was in finance, middle Bro is in Marketing and oldest Bro and I are in IT.
My dad grew up on a farm. However, his dad also had a butcher shop and a grocery truck that he drove around the coal and coke towns selling food. Mostly canned goods and dry goods I guess, but they also raised eggs to sell.