how many of us knew our great grandparents?

[Nimbostratus100]

following on from @waggytailswetnoses thread, which piqued my interest, but turned out to be sadly disappointing, here is the thread I was hoping for! Did you know your great grandparents? Or further back? WHat were they like?

I remember 3 of my great grandparents, they all died within a month of each other when I was nearly 5

I used to stay at maternal ggm house sometimes at weekends. She had a dolls house that had a tiny little cabinet in it with little cutlery/plates etc. It had tiny little candle holders as well 🤣 I loved that dolls house

she sounds amazing

all 8!!!!!!

😵

That must be very very rare

Unfortunately i never met my great grandparents and 3 of my grandparents died before i was born and my remaining grandparent died when i was 4. I would have loved to have known what they were like. I am enjoying reading others memories.

its lovely that you are building relationships with great grandchildren! do you do it differently to when you were just a grandparent?

I didn’t, but my children knew one great grandparent. My Gran met all but one of her great grandchildren.

This thread is responsible for me being a complete zombie this morning! I went onto Ancestry to double check my GGP's birth years and ended up getting side tracked by one of my GGM's brothers who it turned out was a butler at St James's Palace. He didn't do too badly for himself out of it either, judging from his address after he retired. His children went into service too and worked for some quite famous people. All very interesting stuff...kept me occupied until gone 2am! 😂

wow, that is very interesting though!

My parents had me in their early thirties (not old now but more unusual in the late seventies) and they were the youngest of four on each side to parents who had them later in life (late thirties/early forties). So my grandparents were in their early seventies when I was born. So I never knew my great grandparents.

I think older members of my family did (I have cousins who are old enough to be my mother and are grandparents themselves now).

I find the whole age dynamics of large families really interesting. Mr Monkey's dad died a couple of years ago in his early eighties - Mr Monkey is the second youngest of five, so his dad was an older father to him. Mr Monkeys dad was the oldest of ten siblings so Mr Monkeys' youngest aunt and uncle are of a similar age to his oldest sisters.

The age people had children is interesting. My Mum was certainly unusual having me when she was over 40 in the 1960s and yes, growing up in the 70s and 80s I certainly recall most Mums seeming younger. Then it's become more common in recent times for people to have children later.
So I was really surprised to find absolutely loads of children born to older parents in my family tree, and I have got back as far as the 1600s on some lines. I guess it relates to the lack of contraception. So (assuming she didn't die of course) a woman's reproductive life often started earlier but went on longer than we see as the norm nowadays. There are numerous of my ancestors who had their first baby in their teens and were still having more in their 40s, with their youngest children being born after their eldest grandchildren. It must have been horrendous - a baby every year or two with no say in the matter, no real health care and all crammed into tiny houses.
I was also surprised how many ancestors I have who lived to quite old ages as I'd always thought people died much younger. Apparently it's because the data is skewed by the numbers who died in childhood, but if you made it into adulthood you stood a fairly good chance of a decent lifespan. There's quite a lot of childhood deaths in my tree, a few young deaths from accidents and a number of the men married a second or third time due to being widowed - I suspect probably pregnancy/birth related deaths from comparing with birth records - but lots not dying til 70+ which surprised me, as most of my ancestors were working class doing hard manual jobs until the last couple of generations. I've researched DH's family too and found a similar picture. All quite surprising and very fascinating.

I remember my great-granny on my dad's side, though she dies when I was very young. I recall a small, happy lady who loved animals with bright twinkling eyes and who giggled a lot. She also loved chocolates and when we brought her some she would hide them in the side of her armchair so that she wouldn't have to share them! She was 101 when she died, which was probably around 1981.

@Nimbostratus100 I'm so sorry about how your great grandfather died but what was his culture? Energy is fantastic as a name! and I immediately thought of my Afro Caribbean side "Mr Energy Powel of St Andrew Parish" .....

I didn't but my DCs did know my grandmother before she died.

My dcs had 2 of their great grandparents until 4 years ago when ggm died . Ggd died last year when my dc were 27,19,11 and 9

The older 2 had a fantastic relationship with both ggp and stayed with them once a week from being young until they died in ds2s case

I knew two.

One was an absolutely lovely woman and I miss her a lot.

The other was a nasty, vindictive sack of shit who hit my pregnant mum in the stomach with an umbrella for taking her grandson "away" from her. I hope she's being spit roasted in hell.

I met my maternal great grandparents. They'd both died by the time I was a few years old. I remember their formal looking sitting room furnished with dark, solid furniture, and rolling eggs at Easter.

They were very elderly by that time and I'm glad I had the chance to meet them. My paternal grandparents had died some years before I was born.

We have one picture of my with my paternal great grandmother. My dad's mum's mum. She died when I was about 6 months old, so I never knew her. My grandparents were all dead at least a decade before I had my own children.

I remember 2 of my great grandmother's as was at least primary age when they passed.

My favourite was my mums nan on her dad's side. My grandads dad died when he was a toddler and my great grandmother lived with her female long term "companion" for over 60 years until she died. They lived in this really quirky one bedroomed flat but the walls were all stained bright orange where they smoked god knows how many a day. They both always wore gorgeous tailored women suits (think trousers, shirt and fitted waistcoat) and smoked long cigarettes on long holders and were always out and about. When we visited I loved it, they were both so lovely and told amazing stories. It was really sad as after my great grandmother died no one kept in contact with her companion and when she eventually died a few years later she had named my uncle as her next of kin to the nursing home she had passed in as had never had any biological family of her own.

I am loving reading these.

I love the idea that we all have our space on a growing family tree, and will all be great great grandparents ( or great great aunties and uncles) to someone else that will will never meet, one day

I knew only two of my grandparents - both on one side of the family; the last of whom passed away recently having made it to within a few months of receiving her telegram from the Queen (as it would have been at that point). The last of the grandparents on the other side of the family died when I was 6 months old - so beyond a photo of me in his arms I have no recollection.

I knew only one of my great grandparents, also from the same longer-lived side, and he lived to over 100 despite smoking roll-ups and enjoying his whisky. Also had long-lived great-aunts on that side of the family as well.

Will be interesting to see which side of the family's longevity I have inherited... makes it difficult to know whether to spend what I have or save like mad for a very long retirement!