Differences Between Europe and the U.S.

When I was in Germany in 2000, I was able to visit a house that my ancestors lived in 400 years ago. It was surrounded by farmland, despite being very close to Mettman and not all that far from Düsseldorf.

If I wanted to visit the dairy farm that my ancestors in California started in San Francisco around the time of the Gold Rush, I would be visiting the parking lot of the Cow Palace. The rich soil that fed the cows that fed my ancestors is buried under asphalt. And it has only been 150 years.

How did the farmhouse in Germany survive three times as long (and continue to survive) as the California farm? What development pressures exist here that don’t exist there? What laws and cultural norms affected the preservation of the German farm and the development of the California farm? Why do I wish I could visit that dairy farm today? What benefit would I get from visiting it? What insights into my ancestry are no longer available to me?