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

Great thread. The person I knew personally was my great aunt born in 1902.

However when I was a Brownie I remember marching on Remembrance Sunday and there were a fair few first world war veterans still alive and taking part, so I guess they would have been born in the 1890s. This would have been in the early 80s. My great aunt was one of the very many "surplus women" (horrible phrase) from around that time, and never married.

@StarsAreWishes

In relation to the WW1/GreatWar question … my brother’s father was apparently too old to fight in WW1!

I am in my 40s. My (technically half) brother is nearly 20 years older than me. His father had him when he was in his 70s. So my brother’s father was born in roughly 1880-1885 and would have been in his 30s when the war broke out.

He must have been exempt, @StarsAreWishes.

The Military Service Act of 1916 conscripted all single men of 18 - 41 and was known as the Bachelor's Bill - but they extended it in May of that year to include married men.

Your brother's father must have been either medically exempt or in a reserved occupation to not be called up. He certainly wasn't too old. In the last months of the war they conscripted men up to the age of 51.

(Assuming you are in the UK, of course)

I have clear memories of my great gran who was born in 1900, I also remember delivering harvest festival parcels to the elderly who lived in the villages surrounding my primary school, one person we delivered to was 105, it would be either 1990 or 1991 at the time so he would have been born around 1885 or 1886. I remember that he lived alone in a little cottage at the end of a very long lane in some woods.

My Gran was born in the 1920s. I find it mind blowing when we celebrate anniversaries now and think how much more recent they were when she was born.... E.g. 400 years since Shakespeare died.... Was only 300 years ago when she was born.

Thanks @MadMadMadamMim that’s interesting. Although he wasn’t in the U.K. so different rules would have applied.

I didn’t know my great grandparents, but I did know my grandparents next door neighbour, Mrs Trivett. She was seriously ancient when I was a child in the mid 1970s, and she remembered Queen Victoria. I would estimate she was born at some point in the late 1880s.

My greatgrandmother died aged 102 in 1968, so she must have been born in 1866. It blows my mind to think of it. I remember visiting her house, a tiny terrace in Sheffield, with no bathroom and an outside toilet. Wowsers.

Wow! This is an amazing thread!

My house was built in 1829 (seems so old!). My great grandmother was born in 1901.

To have known a relative born in 1878, when my house was still a bit new, is so incredible.

I still give myself a wobble that I have two sons born a year apart but a millennium apart.

Different millennium I mean!

My great aunt (my grandads sister who was 18 years older than he was) was born in 1894. She was a spinster, lived in the family home until old age. I remember visiting her at home once or twice. A dark & old fashioned little cottage, with no TV and an outside toilet. She died when I was 10 but to this day I still remember her distinctive little chuckle.

My great aunt was born in 1898 and died in 2000, always thought it was amazing she had lived through 3 different centuries..!
(Her brother, my grandfather, was born a few years earlier so technically he is the person I've met who was born the longest ago.. but he died when i was only very little).

I was telling my granny and my uncle about this thread tonight.

My granny who is 90, almost 91, remembers her granny who was born in 1865.

My uncle remembers his grandad, my granny’s dad, who was born in 1896.

My GGM lived to 103, she was born in 1899 so saw 3 centuries!

Working in the NHS I remember we had a patient born in 1879.
And I remember some years back reading the obituary of a woman whose father in law had fought at Waterloo, so 1815.

@seperatedmum It's such a lovely memory to have of someone who was pretty much a complete stranger. I know nothing about him before or after that afternoon, but he left an impression on me

@StarsAreWishes

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,

I remember a story in the local paper years ago about a woman turning 110 (I think, it might have been 100). She was born in 1899 and when she was a baby she met some aged relative who was born in 1799

Fabulous thread.

Via Ancestry, I was having a conversation with someone whose elderly mum knew a great uncle of mine, born 1870s. She was telling me details about him that maybe no-one else alive knows any more.

My father was born in 1915 and had older brothers and sisters, I remember my oldest aunt visiting who was born in 1906. His mother died in the 1918 flu epidemic. I never knew my grandparents but have their photos in smart Victorian clothes from the 1890s. When I was a child in the 1960s we lived next to an elderly couple in their 80s so born in 1880s They were very kind and had us in for milk and biscuits which was a treat for us children. My father and I used to go for Sunday country walks and he would always stop to chat to an old lady who lived in the oldest property in the area which was said to be an old Tudor house. She must have been mid 80s and lived alone in the very old farm house. An article was written about her in the local paper when she died as someone who had seen the area change from rural to heavy industrial in her lifetime. Actually thinking about it I may have spoken to older people as a young child who had known William Gladstone the Victorian Prime Minister as we lived in the castle grounds when my dad worked for the family in the 1960s and he also stopped to chat to former workers when we walked in the castle grounds but I honestly don't remember. It just struck me I may have spoken to someone who knew someone who knew Queen Victoria.

My grandmother was born in 1891 and died in 1978. I was 32 when she died so obviously remember her very well. We all lived in the same house when I was a small child. She was a tailoress and made all our clothes, she was amazing. When I was a teenager I told her what I wanted, went shopping with her, pointed out what I liked. She remembered what it looked like, bought the material, 24 hours later I had a perfect dress, skirt etc. I still miss her.

My grand dad was born in 1893 - he died when I was 14.

My granddad, born1893.

My great grandparents, born in the 1870's, that I know of, I think the earliest was 1876. I have a vague recollection of my great grandads older brother, but it's very hazy, my sister remembers him well but she's 5 years older than me. My own grandparents born between 1909 to 1912 all lived into my adulthood, I miss them all terribly.

I remember my Great Grandma; she was born in 1898 I believe. She died when I was 8 but lived in the Netherlands so I didn't see her often.

When I was in the Brownies, it would have been 1983 - 1985, we used to go Carol singing each xmas to a local old people's home. Some of the residents there were late 90s and a couple were 100 plus so they must have been born in the 1880s. We used to sing to them and then go and 'pick' a resident to sit and chat with, and we would give them a card and chocolates. It was lovely and they all really enjoyed it. I just wish I'd been a bit older so I could have asked them questions and enjoyed their stories about their lives. I love hearing stories about times gone by.

I suppose my great grandmother who would have been born around 1900. Nora was her name. She was an absolute whiz at card games. I suppose thats what kept them entertained in the evenings.