O "Gaffer" a que Sam se refere é seu pai, Hamfast "Ham" Gamgee. Eles parecem estar morando em um buraco Hobbit alugado na Bagshot Row, presumível de propriedade da família Baggins, dada sua proximidade com Bag End.
No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held forth at The Ivy Bush , a small inn on the Bywater road; and he spoke with some authority, for he had tended the garden at Bag End for forty years, and had helped old Holman in the same job before that. Now that he was himself growing old and stiff in the joints, the job was mainly carried on by his youngest son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo. They lived on the Hill itself, in Number 3 Bagshot Row just below Bag End.
The Fellowship of the Ring.
Sua mãe é brevemente mencionada no SDA: Apêndice C ( O Longfather-Árvore do Mestre Samwise ) como sendo um Bell Gamgee ( née Goodchild). Ela não aparece no livro e provavelmente está morta.
Seus irmãos Hamson e Halfred não são mencionados no texto e Daisy e May também não. Marigold recebe a mais breve das menções de Sam no romance final.
"But I would dearly like to see Bywater again, and Rosie Cotton and her brothers, and the Gaffer and Marigold and all."
Curiosamente, na Carta # 72 (para seu filho Christopher) Tolkien mencionou a etimologia de todos os nomes de família e indicou que ele não gostava do nome Gamgee e queria mudá-lo para Goodchild, o nome que ele escolheria como o nome de solteira da mãe de Sam .
Sam by the way is an abbreviation not of Samuel but of Samwise (the Old E. for Half-wit), as is his father’s name the Gaffer (Ham) for O.E. Hamfast or Stayathome. Hobbits of that class have very Saxon names as a rule – and I am not really satisfied with the surname Gamgee and shd. change it to Goodchild if I thought you would let me.