To ask what your great-great-grandparents did?

[Rosamund1]

Mine was a hamster.

Miners or agricultural labourers. Poor Catholics in any case. My gran had a major chip on her shoulder about the treatment of Catholics in the day.

Mine smelt of elderberries.

My grandparents were born in the 1890's/1900s, so my g-g-gps would have been born in the first half of the 19th century. I have no bloody idea what they did!

GG(G?)F was an artist, some of his work is in the National Gallery in Dublin. And some in America - he emigrated from Ireland.

Trigamist (is that the term for 3 wives in different places?) smuggler. He was evidently a nasty piece of work.

I think they were all farmers except for one who was a doctor. Great grandma was very proud that she was a doctors daughter. She'd got pregnant by a local farmers son and married down. She was forgiven though.

Sailors.

The side I know: military. Posted all over the world.

Paternal side was a ne'er do well Irish immigrant that spent most of his time in prison whilst his wife and children were consigned to the workhouse.

Maternal side farmers.

It was a mock-take thread but the answers are actually fascinating.

Undertakers
Dockers
Ship building labourers
Cart and horse driver/ journeyman
Cleaner/ domestic servants
Factory workers especially in the leather making industry

Mother's side : Mills, mines

Dad's side : Shipping

Farmers; housewives; military (overseas).

I only know some of the great grandparents: policeman/grocer and housewife, farmhands.

One great great grandmother was quite a businesswoman and owned a laundry in Sussex in the early 20th century after finally becoming estranged from her husband.

This was after he went to prison in 1874 for attempting to bugger a cow. (that was the court terminology used) They resumed their marital life and went on to have a further four children. He was eventually killed under the wheels of a light engine just outside Eastbourne station in 1903 (judged to be suicide), after facing another charge of buggering a donkey. He was in and out of prison most of his adult life and at one stage, the magistrates declared he was 'the most aggravating man in the whole of Eastbourne'.

On my dad's side, they were mostly smallholders in the west of Ireland. Law abiding as far as I can tell!

The whole lot:

Me: Physics Teacher (1 child)

Dad: Engineer (3 children - 1 with mum - me)
Mum: Primary school teacher (2 children)

PGF: Coal miner
PGM: Housewife (8 children - two died before 5th birthday)
MGF: Painter and decorator
MGM: Shop assistant until married then housewife (1 child)

PPGGF: Coal Miner (4 children + 1 extra + prison for bigamy)
PPGGM: Housewife (4 children)
PMGGF: Coal Miner
PMGGM: Housewife (7 children)
MPGGF: Painter and Decorator
MPGGM: Housewife (5 children)
MMGGF: Fishing Float Maker
MMGGM: Fishing Tackle Maker (1 child)

Before that on Dad's side they were all coal miners/housewives as far as I can see and on Mum's side there were more factory workers, a minister (had a couple of books published too) and I think someone who worked in a tannery.

I only know about one, and he was the mayor of a big town in Ireland, I’d assume labourers for the rest!

I know one, Paternal GG Grandfather built a hydroelectric power plant and bought electricity to his bit of Italy.
Grandmas dad was a road sweeper...my Nonna married up!

Not sure on mums side...I think that at one point someone lost all the money and by the time my grandad was born they were pretty much peasant farmers.

Milliner GGM on Mother’s side, Farmer? GGF on Father’s side (family story is that GF and his brother stole a pig from their father to get to England to join the army to fight in the Boer war - neither returned home to Ireland and settled in London and Liverpool) haha!

I know that one was a tennant farmer in Yorkshire, because his son was too. Farm was sold after that, 1930's when my grandfather was a man. My grandmothers, grandfather was one of Queen Victoriasize Postilions. We know because we have a photo. I have no idea about the others.

Mostly railway workers or shipbuilders.

One of mine was a trigamist. He was a sailor in the navy and had 3 wives in London he rotated between. It only came to light 35 years ago when a relative was painstakingly working on the family history using paper records. I clearly remember a lot of whispered, not for the children’s ears-type, angst-ridden conversations over it between my grandmother and her siblings. Scarred me for life

Hawkers, peg makers, basket weavers, knife grinders, bare knuckle boxing champion.
Palmist/ fortune teller, Violinist, harpist, story teller.

My ggf was noted in Bunyan's Tales, he fed a village with his hedgehog stew, during times of famine.

Vaguely... on one side: farmer+house wife, head of customs+ lady of leisure. One the other side: farmer+house wife, head teacher+lady of leisure.

Window cleaner, bedstead maker for one. His Father was a Gimblet maker and he was also the son of a Gimblet maker.

On the other side they were miners.