who is the person that was born the longest ago that you have met?

[ivykaty44]

So my great grandmother was born in 1878 and I can remember visiting her at her home, she later for a few months went into a nursing home

so not the oldest, but the person born the longest ago so 144 years ago for me

My great grandmother was born about 1870. She died about 1 week short of 101. I remember the home she spent the last three years of her life in being full of terrifying old people.

My great grandma was born in 1885. I remember her very well. She died in 1977 when I was 9

My Grandad was born in 1900 and was therefore a victorian. He lived until the mid 1990s. His son, my uncle, is now the most senior member of the family at 97.
I also met an old man when volunteering at a local hospital many years ago who told me he fought in the FIRST Falklands war (the 1982 conflict was happening at the time). I've just googled it and it took place in 1914, so the latest he would been born in 1898 at the latest.

Don't know exact years but had several great Aunties/2nd cousins on both sides who died aged late 90s ...and must have been 30 - 35 years ago so would be 125-135 years ago born ( 1890?) . One of them had 'gone into service' in a stately home as a ladies maid aged 12. I have another who left me a piano in their Will when I was 6. But I'm not sure exactly how old she lived until. But maybe born before 1890. One grandad was born in 1912 and he was very much alive for my childhood as were a couple of his older siblings. They had a tough tough life. One great grandmother was from 1895...she died when I was a young child. yep there were a lot of old people in my early childhood.

Great question!

1880s I think.

One was an older neighbour of my grandmother, who was about 25 years older than her at the time (late 1970s when Gran was about 60). Gran was born in 1908, so I guess about 1883 for the neighbour.

But also, a lady I used to visit when my mum worked in a nursing home. The lady was 100, and this was in 1989, so born 1889.

My great, great auntie was born in 1883 and I remember meeting her several times. My great, gran, her sister, was born in 1893 and she remembered seeing Queen Victoria.

My great aunt (grandma's oldest sister) who was born in the 1880s

My GG aunt, born 1892, lived to be 102. Her fiancé died in WW1 and she never married, lived with her sister for years. I think that was quite common with the Great war taking so many young men

My grandad on my mums side was born 1903. Died in the 80s when I was pretty young.

Amazingly my great grandad (was born in the 1850s and my little sister in the 1990s so very few generations in 140 years!

I couldn't say for certain who the oldest was but when I was a medical student and junior doctor I met lots of patients who were born in the 1890s. My grandparents and great aunts were about that age too
The most interesting elderly person I ever met was a man who had been a shepherd boy for Beatrix Potter before WW1. He was in his 90s when I met him but still sharp as a button and full of amazing memories.

My mum had her great grandfather live with them in the late 1950s. They used to call him 'The Victorian' even then! I think working out his age he must have been born 1870... I of course didn't meet him so not relevant for this question..BUT because he lived with my mum and grandma I feel like I know him as they've told so many anecdotes about him. To be honest they aren't particularly victorian either..they are the same kind of stories you'd say about a grandad now (hugs, sweets in his pocket, giving you a coin etc, cracking poor jokes). So I think largely people are people whatever the era.

I think i can only go back to 1901, but something that always interested me was my granny telling me about her great aunt who went to america during the potato famine, who she then met up with when she was young and the great aunt was old and granny told me the stories her great aunt told her. I realised you can cross long periods of history with just two conversations. The one granny had with her aunt and the one she had with me.

my grandpa was born in 1899.

I knew him really well until I was an adult.

A great great uncle born in I think 1886.

I had a great, great aunt - Aunt Lizzie. She was born in 1885. She died when I was five in 1980. I remember sitting on her lap and being cuddled. She was lovely.

@Onionpatch this really made me smile. How lovely.

At the turn of the century so 1900ish. Her name was Ivy and she lived up the road from us and she smoked a pack-a-day and was in her 90s when I was around 5 or 6.

My great grandmother must have been born in about 1880. I remember her in the 1970s. She was a proper old Victorian looking lady in a long black skirt with a little grey bun. She lived to her mid 90s as did her two spinster sisters.

@Onionpatch

I think i can only go back to 1901, but something that always interested me was my granny telling me about her great aunt who went to america during the potato famine, who she then met up with when she was young and the great aunt was old and granny told me the stories her great aunt told her. I realised you can cross long periods of history with just two conversations. The one granny had with her aunt and the one she had with me.

it's absolutely mind blowing how you can cross generations like that, my dad lived with his grandma who remembered the catastrophic earthquake in Jamaica which was 1907 sadly I never met her myself. this thread is giving me shivers

I realised you can cross long periods of history with just two conversations

Yes, it’s strange to think about, isn’t it? Given how many in this thread can go back 140 years, then think how that person, when they were young, would also have met someone older. You can suddenly span 270+ years, so back to c1750,

My maternal grandparents were born in 1920, and I knew both of them. One died aged 98. I think they would be the oldest people I know. Their parents were dead before I was born, and both were the oldest (or oldest surviving) child.

Well my grandmother was born in 1920 and is still with us!
I met her father who must have been born in around 1885.

Probably a great-aunt born in 1915. I adored her when I was a child.

I interviewed some elderly people as part of a history project in the 80's who had fought in World War One. Some were in their 90's then so they must have been born in the 1890's.
Oldest family member was a great aunt who was born in 1912 and lived a ripe old age.

My granny, born in 1889.