The Farmer Family

My paternal line, the FARMER family, has a large presence in Wales, particularly around Cardiff and Breconshire, but they have also settled far and wide in places such as America, and Australia. Among the many trades featured in my FARMER tree are Coal Hawkers, Saddlers, and Gunsmiths - and even a Town Crier! So far i have managed to trace the line back to the 1700s, but i am still in the process of confirming all the facts - it is said a family tree is never finished!

ONLINE FARMER FAMILY TREE - This is the online version of the FARMER Family Tree. For security I have hidden details on anyone who is still alive. This is currently a work in progress so it will need quite a bit of tweaking to the design, and at the moment will have quite a few names missing.

DOWNLOADABLE ZIP FILES - Here you can find "Work-In-Progress" Versions and "Confirmed" Versions of the Farmer Family Tree to download. These zip files are more secure than the online tree above, and therefore have more information about us "Living" descendants to provide a more complete tree.

"This English medieval job descriptive surname, recorded in the spellings of Farmer, Farmar, Fermer and Fermor, is of Olde French pre 10th century origins. Most people are surprised to know that originally the surname had nothing to with actually tilling the soil. Based upon the word "fermier", the name describes an early financier or collector of tithes and taxes, one who specialised in "farming " land leases. These first farmers would act as brokers for the crown or the major landowners, selecting applicants to work the tenanted lands on the basis usually of who paid most. The "farmers" in time became rich in their own right, and then reversed the process by purchasing land themselves on which in the modern sense, they then "farmed". Amongst the earliest of all recordings is that of William Le Fermer, in the rolls known as the "Feet of Fines" for the county of Essex in the year 1238. This was not a hereditary surname and nor was that of William le Farmere of Cambridge in 1279. The first known recording of the hereditary surname may be that of Richard Fermor, in the Fees Rolls of the county of Devon, in 1293. This was during the reign King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307."

Taken from: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Farmer#ixzz1reS2zhy7