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 dad's gran, born 1880s. I met her at Whit, 1959 or 60. I can remember. I should have asked her about family history! I was two.

My great granny on my dads side was born in 1910, I have one clear memory of meeting her on the street when I was a teenager, probably just a year or two before she died, although I’m sure I must have met her more than that when I was younger.

My dh’s great aunt was born in 1904, I met her quite a few times too. I actually remember her better than my great granny as I met her in the 1990’s after I met my husband. She died in 2000 at the age of 96.

It would be my great grandmother who was born in the 1860s.

What an amazing thread! And what a fabulous family photo to have, ivykaty.

I am very jealous of those who knew people born in the 1880s or even earlier.

I think the earliest I've ever met were the Jeffreys: Sir Harold was born in 1891, and his wife Bertha Swirles in 1903.

My great-grandfather was born in 1880s, I met him when I was a small child, he died aged nearly 100 when I was still quite little so I only really remember the funeral.

@Frozenlikeablockofmarble

1898 - my great-aunt. My great-grandfather, whom I never met, as he died 25 years before I was born, is still within living memory of a distant relative in their late 80s - he was born in 1867.

Not the question asked but a fascinating fact about a friend of mine, born in the late 1950s. Her father was in the Great War and had her in his 60s. For most people of her age it was their grandparents who fought in WWI, so sometimes the generations get skewed. One generation from WWI at her age is remarkable in my experience in the UK and she said it is too in her country. Anyone else out there with such a close connection to that generation? I’ll have to ask her the original question and see what she comes back with - if her grandparents were long-lived it will be interesting to find out!

Yes! Friend of mine born late 1960s is the child of a Great War soldier!

The father was very young when he served, as you can imagine, and then married and had children at a very ripe age.

My Grandma. She was born in 1889 and died in 1977

My grandmother was friends with a man whose father was still around, and I met the father once. He was in an old peoples home, surrounded by people in their 70s who barely moved from their chairs, and only walked with zimmer frames.

He was about 108 when I met him, so must have been born around 1888, I think. He leapt up and said 'good god! About time we had someone with a beating heart in this place!' And then insisted I partner him at that afternoon's tea dance. He was absolutely lovely, but had no grandchildren. I wonder sometimes if I'm one of the few alive who still remembers him.

My great grandmother held me as a tiny baby, so we did meet. She was born in 1882 or thereabouts.
When I worked in an old people's home, there were residents born in 1898 and 1899.
My mother's grandmother turned 100 the year my mother was born, in 1945, and when she died (still 100) she was the oldest woman in our town. We still have the newspaper cutting somewhere about her. So my mother has met someone born in 1845.

Someone will be asking this about us one day...

"My great granny, she was born in 1992 and lived through the Two Towers, Brexit and Coronavirus."

One of my grandmothers was born in 1885. She had lived on three continents by the time she was 25, and was the mother of four children (with many more ahead of her).

@Frozenlikeablockofmarble
Very! I love it. Sadly my own dad doesn't care for history and probably wouldn't have any facts for me.
I do know my grandad was one of 6 and he was the youngest. And quite a gap between them. His own father died in an industrial accident when he was young so his older brothers were the wage earners. Again no info about this. Seemingly not considered that unusual . So if my great uncle was born 1899 (I'm not sure on that) and he died around 1980ish..again not sure... and my grandad 1912 (i.do know that) then not too hard for me aged nearly 50 to be 2 steps. Because I come from mining/industrial stock not many of my family fought in either war as they were reserved occupations.
What I do remember about my great uncle was that they had a very lovely cottage style garden. It was beautiful. Which thinking about it is in such contrast to the poverty and grime he grew up in. They also never had children as couldn't. Happy memories.

Also really good to hear that even years ago people lived to good old ages. A lot of my (poor industrial/mining) relatives died quite young at say 50 or 60 of things we can cure or manage now and also poverty related illness - but then going through these memories I see lots also lived to their 90s... same for many of us here.

I have a few older who died when I was under 10, but my Granny was born in 1905 and lived to be 100. She saw a lot of changes. She talked about seeing 'the boys' going off to war (WW1). She stayed interested in all the things her GC and our spouses did right up until the end.

My grandma was born in 1914

My great grandma, 1904 I think.

No doubt I met other people but I remember her well as I was 12 when she died.

For my preteen DC, they met their great aunts born mid 1920s onwards.

The generational shift is different for my DC as DH is 18 years older than me, so my lovely MIL was 6 months older than my grandma.

My great grandfather was born in 1893 and I can remember him from when i was a child in the 80s. He died around 1987/88.

My Great Gran was born in 1895 and I remember her well. She came to us for Christmas every year when I was very young. She had a fondness for sherry iirc!

I'm most fascinated by by Great Grandad from another line, he was born in a navvy camp in 1901. That feels like an extraordinary link to a way of life long gone.

I remember visiting my GG aunt, who was born in the late 1880s, in a nursing home. I can still see the high-backed chairs lined up around the walls of the room and my aunt’s face peering out between the wings of her chair.

She had a reputation in the family as difficult and irascible but, really, who could blame her…… During WWI she fell in love with her brother-in-law (her sister’s husband’s brother - got it?!?). Tragically if not uncommonly, shortly after they got engaged, her fiancé - my GG Uncle from another branch of the family - was killed at the front.

Oh @sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea all the feelings! sounds like a great man

My great-grandparents died before I was born so my answer is boring - my grandad! He was born in 1930, I was born in 1990. Even his older brother died before I came along.

I mean, I’m sure I’ve met someone older in my life but not knowingly. I remember asking my parents about my great-grandparents’ birth dates because I thought it would be so cool to know someone born in the 1800s but no, they were all much more recent 😅

My paternal grandad was born 1899 just after his parents arrived from the Ukraine. He died when I was small. My dad lived with all 4 of his grandparents in his childhood, none of whom spoke English well, so they conversed in a mix of bad Yiddish and bad English. All born in the 1870's in shtetls in Ukraine. They ran from yet another pogrom and told my dad fascinating stories about the journey to London, or tramping through thick snow to spend an hour courting in a room filled with relatives, then tramping back again. Utterly alien world.

My dad's great aunt, she was very old in the late 60s when we went to visit. Must have been born in the 1880s. Thing was she celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary - with her 2nd marriage after getting divorced! Goodness knows what a scandal that must have been!

My grandaunt, born around 1897/98. Died in the 1990s

My paternal grandfather was born in 1887 and always said he was a Jubilee baby because it was Queen Victoria's jubilee year. He told us lots of tales of his childhood (and his later time in the trenches in France in the Great War). A distant cousin passed on to me a sort of travel diary written by my great-great grandfather who made a journey by pony and trap from his home near Norwich to London (with my grandfather as a small boy, I think - taking him back to his home in London). It took them 2 or 3 days and he detailed everything including how
much he paid the "Boots" for cleaning his shoes at one of the inns where they spent the night. It all sounds vaguely Dickensian.