The English word is rooted in the Old English ‘iunge man’ or, ‘young man’ or ‘yonge man’, and this meaning possibly combined with ‘geaman’, ‘geman’, or ‘gauman’, meaning district, villager, or countryman rustic.

In the Fifteenth Century, a ‘yeoman’ was also a farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself into prosperity. In German occupational and social standing, the ‘yeoman farmer’ is known as a ‘Freibauer’ (meaning freehold farmer).

In the Middle Ages or medieval times, a ‘yeoman’ was identified as a rank, or position in a noble or royal household with titles such as: Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, King’s Yeoman, and various others. Most duties were connected with protecting the sovereign and dignitaries as a bodyguard, attending the sovereign with various tasks as needed, or duties assigned to his office.


And now for a bit of housekeeping

See the wood and the trees

We publish everything we have in our fabulous trees, so basically if you can’t find it, we don’t have it. With over 20,000 people, 5,000 families, 12,000 sources, and 69,000 image references currently sat in our database, you’ll appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this over the years.

You can see more in the Close Ancestry Trees.


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