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President John Tyler grandson died

32 replies

Gundogday · 03/06/2025 08:40

There was a thread about living memories , ie history don’t directly know through your grandparents. Can’t find it now, but thought this was of interest .

President John Tyler’s grandson has died.

www.independent.co.uk/news/white-house-president-university-of-virginia-union-b2760283.html

OP posts:
ARainyNightInSoho · 03/06/2025 08:43

My grandfather just remembered Queen Victoria being alive.

Sorry OP, but I don’t fully understand your post. Are there some typos?

Friartruckster · 03/06/2025 08:48

I get why you posted op but perhaps you’re US based so the death of a President’s grandson specifically has more resonance with you than those based outside the US.

Agree, our relationship with our grandparents is emotive because they represent our living history.

Mischmasch · 03/06/2025 09:23

Friartruckster · 03/06/2025 08:48

I get why you posted op but perhaps you’re US based so the death of a President’s grandson specifically has more resonance with you than those based outside the US.

Agree, our relationship with our grandparents is emotive because they represent our living history.

I assumed OP was making a point about the quite interesting fact that President John Tyler was born in 1790 and that his grandson has just died, in 2025 - it’s a 235 year gap, which is surely pretty unusual! Most of us probably have grandparents born around 50/60/70 years before us, but Harrison Tyler was born in 1928, 138 years after his grandfather's birth.

Yerto · 03/06/2025 09:27

I agree, it's the age gap which makes it more interesting.
In my own family we do have a 99 year and 97 year age gap between grandparents and grandchildren (opposite sides of family). But even those are a good few decades less than the Tyler's.

SarfLondonLad · 03/06/2025 09:32

Friartruckster · 03/06/2025 08:48

I get why you posted op but perhaps you’re US based so the death of a President’s grandson specifically has more resonance with you than those based outside the US.

Agree, our relationship with our grandparents is emotive because they represent our living history.

Well I'm in the UK and I'm gobsmacked by it!

The grandson of Tyler. POTUS No 10 and we're now on POTUS 47!

It's amazing!

Uricon2 · 03/06/2025 09:38

Incredible to have a grandparent born in the 18th century and be alive yourself well into the 21st. Thanks @Gundogday

SarfLondonLad · 03/06/2025 09:41

Tyler was the first VP to become President when President Harrison died in office - hence his grandson's first name!

MerryPortas · 03/06/2025 09:44

Thanks for sharing - that’s an outstanding age gap.

carrotycrumble · 03/06/2025 09:46

That’s extraordinary!

ARichtGoodDram · 03/06/2025 09:46

That is a spectacular age gap between grandparent and grandchild!

John Tyler was 64 when Harrison's father, Lyon, was born. His wife (his second wife) was 30 years younger than him.

Lyon Tyler was born in 1853 and was 75 when Harrison was born. His wife was 40.

That's quite fascinating. John Tyler apparently had more children than any other US president - 15 by two wives.

EasternStandard · 03/06/2025 09:48

ARichtGoodDram · 03/06/2025 09:46

That is a spectacular age gap between grandparent and grandchild!

John Tyler was 64 when Harrison's father, Lyon, was born. His wife (his second wife) was 30 years younger than him.

Lyon Tyler was born in 1853 and was 75 when Harrison was born. His wife was 40.

That's quite fascinating. John Tyler apparently had more children than any other US president - 15 by two wives.

Thanks for this. I was trying to work out the birth dates.

Comedycook · 03/06/2025 09:49

I understand the amazement you can feel at the passage of time...I have a photo of myself with my great grandmother...she must have been born in the 1800s....that kind of blows my mind. I also thought to myself the other day, when my father was born in the 1940s, there would have been loads of people walking round who were born in the 1800s...and some of them would have at some point in their early life had known people who had been born in the 1700s....makes my brain hurt a bit but it's amazing to think of.

ARichtGoodDram · 03/06/2025 09:55

I find it amazing talking to DH's grandmother. She's now 104. The changes she has seen through her life are remarkable.

She lived with her grandparents so the people who brought her up were born in the 1800s. Which I find quite mind blowing. She just laughs and says "parenting has changed a bit since then" 😂

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 03/06/2025 09:59

Thanks a lot for the update, OP. This was always a fact that really fascinated me too. Sad news, but I think Harrison got quite a decent crack at it!

I know it wasn't quite the same thing, but I always found it (presumably deliberately) hilarious that the actor who played 'Young Mr Grace' in Are You Being Served - filmed in the 1970s - was born in the 1800s!

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 03/06/2025 10:15

ARichtGoodDram · 03/06/2025 09:55

I find it amazing talking to DH's grandmother. She's now 104. The changes she has seen through her life are remarkable.

She lived with her grandparents so the people who brought her up were born in the 1800s. Which I find quite mind blowing. She just laughs and says "parenting has changed a bit since then" 😂

I always found it so weird to think that my DGM who died aged almost 97 - and she was the youngest of my GPs - was born before television was invented.

Nowadays, if you include YouTube and all the streaming services, there are literally millions of hours of TV that I could choose from to watch right now - with approx 720 more hours uploaded every single minute - but when my GPs were born, there was not a single minute of TV available!

TorroFerney · 03/06/2025 10:15

Friartruckster · 03/06/2025 08:48

I get why you posted op but perhaps you’re US based so the death of a President’s grandson specifically has more resonance with you than those based outside the US.

Agree, our relationship with our grandparents is emotive because they represent our living history.

It’s not that a presidents grandson has died it’s the spanning of the centuries so from the presidents birth to the grandsons death there are 235 years between those events.

I think Richard Osman talked about it on one of his podcasts (obviously at the time the grandson was alive) which is how I know about him.

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 03/06/2025 10:16

Thanks for sharing @Gundogday I'm another one who's always found out amazing that Grandfather and Grandson had such a huge age gap!
My own Grandad is 50 years older than me, and only 70 years older than my son.

VonBonbon · 03/06/2025 10:24

If you look at the 1939 Register (taken before the war to get a sense of population need/ID cards) it feels quite startling to see so many 19thC birthdates. Really brings home the speed of change.

Uricon2 · 03/06/2025 11:17

My sister is quite a lot younger than me, born when Mum was in her 40s. Mum was born when my grandparents were in their 40s.

During a history lesson, the teacher asked DSis class if anyone had a grandparent who served in WW2. Quite a few hands up. Teacher then (jokingly) asked if anyone had one who was in WW1. Dsis only one.

I'm early 60s and all of my grandparents were born in the 19th C.

Strictlyshortly · 03/06/2025 11:28

I'm 55. A few years ago I was at a 100th Birthday party - my Great-Aunt. I commented to a friend that I remembered my Great Aunt's mother and father!

I was 4/5 and I remember them staying with my Gran (the Birthday Girl's sister).
Seems unbelievable.

EtonMessy · 03/06/2025 11:46

I love this sort of thing. The last surviving widow of a soldier from the American civil war only died in 2020. He was in his 90’s and she was about 19 when they married. She was his carer and he wanted to marry her so she would get his war pension as a way to repay her kindness .

x2boys · 03/06/2025 11:50

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 03/06/2025 10:15

I always found it so weird to think that my DGM who died aged almost 97 - and she was the youngest of my GPs - was born before television was invented.

Nowadays, if you include YouTube and all the streaming services, there are literally millions of hours of TV that I could choose from to watch right now - with approx 720 more hours uploaded every single minute - but when my GPs were born, there was not a single minute of TV available!

It's interesting isn't it all my grandparents died 20+ years ago well into their 80,s and so much has changed even in that time
My dh grandmother only died during the pandemic she waa 101,( for various reasons we didn't see that side of his family) so had no idea she was still alive
But I always find it amazing that some people still have grandparents alive ,when they themselves are in their 40,s or even 50,s.

Comedycook · 03/06/2025 11:53

x2boys · 03/06/2025 11:50

It's interesting isn't it all my grandparents died 20+ years ago well into their 80,s and so much has changed even in that time
My dh grandmother only died during the pandemic she waa 101,( for various reasons we didn't see that side of his family) so had no idea she was still alive
But I always find it amazing that some people still have grandparents alive ,when they themselves are in their 40,s or even 50,s.

I do as well. By the time I was 27, all my grandparents and parents had died. But anyway I remember doing the school run one day...there was a grandmother who picked up her grandchildren every day who I was chatting with. She wasn't a young grandmother by the way, she was in her seventies... anyway I asked her what she was doing at the weekend and she said she was going to see her parents....I was absolutely flabbergasted!

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 03/06/2025 12:04

Comedycook · 03/06/2025 11:53

I do as well. By the time I was 27, all my grandparents and parents had died. But anyway I remember doing the school run one day...there was a grandmother who picked up her grandchildren every day who I was chatting with. She wasn't a young grandmother by the way, she was in her seventies... anyway I asked her what she was doing at the weekend and she said she was going to see her parents....I was absolutely flabbergasted!

I had a resident in the care home I worked in who's son was almost 80! He probably could have moved in if he'd wanted.

BogRollBOGOF · 03/06/2025 13:29

My family packs the generations in. DH's are more spread. Recently my teenage DCs were chatting with their 96yo great-aunt... they also have a 45yo great aunt of similar age to me Grin

Some years ago they went to their recently deceased great-great-great uncle's memorial; he was mid-90s.

Their grandma was older than their great-grandparents! I had a great-grandma until I was in my 20s and full set of grandparents until mid-30s.

The DCs get somewhat confused by extended family connections for some reason... Grin