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

I knew my great granny very well. She was born in 1904. My dad great granny very well and she lived (with them) until he was about 10. She was born in 1861 and lived in Whitechapel during the Ripper Murders which happened when she was nearing 30. She apparently had some great stories.

“Dad knew his great granny….” That should read!

My great grandmother was born 1874, she died when I was 5 in 1969.

My Great Grandma. I have very fond memories of her.
she was born in 1879.

I worked in an old people's home in 1990, a lady turned a 100.

My father. born in 1889.

My great grandad was born in 1917 and as far as I know he's the only person I know who has been born that far back.

@2bazookas wow 😮

Late 1880s, I'd say. I was a little girl and the lady was my playmate's great-mother.

Brilliant thread, OP. So fascinating.

@Nomoresmoresthensnores that’s really interesting to read - you’re the youngest person I’ve encountered to be two steps away from WWI, I think. I’m in the same position, but 5-10 years older than you from the sound of it. While at a planning event before the 14-18 Centenary, we went round the table saying what our family connection to the Great War was. For most people round the table it was GGF, and for some it was their GF. I was the youngest present and the youngest by far of those who said GF. It’s amazing you’re even younger!

I like these conversational threads - so fascinating what people come up with, isn’t it?

So many amazing examples here.

My granddad was born in 1907, 80 years before me, and I remember him well. (He and my grandma had lots of children, and my mother was a surprise baby about 8 years younger than her closest sister!)

1897: my grandfather
For my kids, it will be my grandmother (other side of the family!) b. 1925.

My grandmother’s neighbour and friend was born in around 1888 and died in around 1980 when I was very young. She had had eleven children, seven of whom survived to
adulthood. Her husband, whom she’d married at 17, was a spiteful and violent alcoholic who died young in the 1930s and left a suitcase containing hundreds of pounds (a lot of money then) in his wardrobe. She never found out where the money came from but the cash plus widowhood meant that her life improved!

Not quite the same as he never met his uncle or grandfather, but my Dh is the youngest child of older parents. His father was the youngest of 11 children, something like 23 years between oldest and youngest. So my DH has an uncle who was killed in the first world war and his grandfather was born in 1865.

I can remember a lovely neighbour we had when I was growing up who had been at the Battle of the Somme, had been shot in the throat and left for dead. He had very little voice but could make himself understood and was otherwise ok and lived into his nineties! I guess he'd have been born around the late 1880s.

Oddly, as I get older, those dates don't seem as long ago as they used to. Bit hard to explain.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1905. I knew her mother, we have a four generation photograph taken at my christening, but don't remember her as I was only around three when she died. I'm not sure what year she was born but it was probably around 1880.

On the other side of the family, my grandparents were born in 1899 and 1900 and I knew them both very well.

1884. I am in my 30s so feel quite lucky to go back so far

A lovely lady I nursed twenty years ago. She was born in 1898.
She was bright as a button and very alert. We had many interesting conversations.
What made me smile were her sons, both in their late 70's. They would visit and clown about and she'd tell them off. They all seemed about 60 years younger that they were. She'd say she was just a number.

My grandparents, grandfather born 1889, grandmother born a year earlier, I think.
Granddad died in 1975 aged 86. He was a glassblower and had the most amazing apple cheeks he could puff out alarmingly. His father and grandfather before him were also glassblowers.
He taught me how to play cribbage and three-card brag.

When I was small, a lady at church turned 100, so she must have been born around 1879 or so.

My own grandfather was born in 1885...but didn't live long enough to meet any of his grandchildren.

Great Uncle Bert would have been born around 1880, I remember him well from when I was a child in the 60s and he was pushing 90 then. He came to stay with us for a few weeks to give my aunt a break from caring for him and he was very Edwardian, very dapper and always besuited with his gold watch chain. He wasn't much liked by the wider family but I loved talking to him and was sorry when he went home. He'd been an engine driver on the Great Western Railway and told great stories of his working life.

My great uncles mum. He was born around 1910 so she must have been born around 1890 or even earlier. I remember going to visit her in Wales when I was very little around 4/5 so sometime in 1974/75. My grandma on my mums side was born in 1900 so I think she must be the second oldest.

My Gran, born in 1884. She died at 97....my Grandad, her youngest son is still going strong at 99! i feel very fortunate.

He had served in both the first and second world wars.

@worcestersauce29

My Gran, born in 1884. She died at 97....my Grandad, her youngest son is still going strong at 99! i feel very fortunate.

We have 5 generations living x

I knew quite a few Victorians, asked my great aunt what her earliest memory was and she told me watching soldiers returning from the Boer War!