Daily AncestorFarm laborer
A farm laborer worked on someone else's farm, or on the family farm, without running it; the census separated this from farmer.
Census enumerators were told again and again to separate farmers, who ran a farm as owner or tenant, from farm laborers, who worked for wages or helped on the family farm.
Grown sons on the father's farm were usually entered as farm laborers. From 1910 the census added home farm or working out to show whether the work was for family or for others.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1920 census
Henry Lutz, 19, son, Farm laborer, Iowa
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Farm laborer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/farm-laborer. Last checked 2026-10-01.