What jobs did your Grandparents do?

[VioletBam]

And your Great Grandparents....AND what do you do? I'm just interested in the journeys...and I know this isn't really an AIBU but hey...there are more people here!

Here are mine....

Maternal Grandfather: Steelworker
Maternal Grandmother: Cleaner

Paternal Grandfather: Steelworker
Paternal Grandmother: Waitress

Great Maternal Grandfather: Boilermaker/Steelworker
Great Maternal Grandmother: Maid in a private house

Great Paternal Grandfather: Docker
Great Paternal Grandmother: Cleaner

Me: Actor and copywriter

I want to see other people's lists if possible...I find it fascinating that such a short time ago, some of my relatives couldn't write...a couple of those listed signed their marriage certificates with an X and beside that, the Registrar had written "Her mark".

It seems so strange...so few years have passed but so much social change has gone on. What will OUR great grandchildren see when they look at our records?

I'm not overly sure of the GGPs to be honest.
Although I do know one was in the war, one was a cleaner but not sure which was which.

I'm a SAHM at the moment as have 2 under 5, but hope to do social work based stuff or transcript based work.

Interesting thread. I don't know about my GGPs.

Grandmothers were a factory worker and shop assistant/dinner lady. Both did more during the war but were expected to give that up when the men returned. The factory worker lost her job upon marriage. They were both very bright but lacked opportunities and left school at 14.

One GF was an engineer but was made redundant (losing his company pension in the process ) and after that worked as a security guard.

My other GF was an architect's assistant/draughtman.

Parents both teachers.

I worked for a Big 4 consultancy pre-dc.

Paternal grandmother- English teacher
Paternal grandfather- newsagent shop keeper

Maternal grandmother- in the forces during the war decoding morse and then a sahm to 7!
Maternal grandfather- architect.

Grandfathers - shop keeper and carpet fitter
Grandmothers - helped in shop / RAF in the war then didn't work

Great grandparents - coal miners and textile workers

Before that - textile workers (the women) itinerant manual labour (the men)

Before that - probably Irish farmers before the potato famine

This thread has certainly made me want to find out more about my family history. Definitely agree that social history is what tells us about the past.

I know there's a history book published that is partly about my family (about the history of the Lappish island my maternal side is from) so I really should get hold of a copy of that. I know three of my great uncles died very young in world war two, fighting against the Russians, there's a lovely photo of the three war heroes that I found in my grandad's photo collection.

Mothers line.

Great grandmother - never worked. Came from a gypsy family originally.
great grandfather - Army officer.

Great grandmother - never worked
great grandfather - army during the 2nd world war.

Granddad- Army chef (national service then did another couple of years) Driver (delivery driver, coaches, busses then Lorries)

Grandmother - childminder, housekeeper in several hospitals.

Mother - Psychiatric nurse, home carer
Father - mechanic

Fathers parents (never met them) Owned a line of petrol stations and garages. Which explains my Fathers job.

Me- Graphic designer/illustrator
OH - Editor

We did not meet through work though many people think we did!

Maternal grandfather - church minister
Maternal grandmother - nurse
Paternal grandfather - church minister
Paternal grandmother - bookkeeper (secretary?)

We have so many jobs these days so do we only count the last job somone did?
My grandads were a cobbler and a photographer and nans were a seamstress and a SAHM.
My parents were shopkeepers as their last careers but lots of other things in between.
I am now a teacher but only since I turned 40 and my kids' dad is in the oil industry.
My daughters are a graphic designer and a research scientist.

Great-grandfathers (paternal) - one was a journalist, the other an economist
Great-grandmothers (paternal) - both housewives

Great-grandfathers (maternal) - one was a poet, the other a teacher
Great-grandmothers (maternal) - one was a dressmaker, the other a housewife

Grandfather (paternal) - lawyer
Grandmother (maternal) - teacher

Grandfather (maternal) - bank manager
Grandmother (maternal) - nurse

Dad - airline pilot, businessman (after retiring as pilot)
Mum - GP

Me - Accountant

Maternal grandmother: sahm
Maternal grandfather: coal miner

Paternal grandmother: Charge nurse/Sister
Paternal grandfather: (unusually) sahd and sometime train driver/ dental technician

Mum: headteacher
Dad: university lecturer

Me: ODP
Brother: something in insurance at Lloyds of London

Maternal grandmother : housewife
Maternal grandfather: business owner

Paternal grandfather: Engineer
Paternal grandmother: housewife

Before then, lots of master stonemasons father son etc although there was a rumour that my maternal great grandmother was more than friends with the local gentleman for whom she worked. She had five Children rather mysteriously. Scandal.

Me: City solicitor

maternal gm - millworker
maternal gf - coachpainter
paternal gf - gardener
paternal gm - seamstress
mother - engineer
father - teacher
me - creative arts

Dad's parents: owned and ran a dairy, owned various houses some of which they rented out, others lived in by family - before running the dairy, my grandad was a printer by trade.
Mum's parents; Farmers - I hesitate to put 'farmer's wife' for women as often they sold milk and dairy stuff to locals, and raised poultry which they sold themselves, to make extra money.

Dad's maternal grandad - ran a dairy; my great grandad was a farmer's son and before the dairy, was a carrier

Dad's maternal grandma - daughter of a master wheelwright

Dad's paternal grandad: Printer with his own business
Paternal grandma: Her father was a master carpenter; she brought up her 6 kids after she married

Mum's maternal grandad: farmer
Maternal grandma: Farmer's wife (as above), farmer's daughter

Mum's paternal grandad: farmer
Paternal grandma: Farmer's wife (as above), farmer's daughter

Oh and I forgot me - writer/historical researcher

And also happen to be a genealogist - most of my ancestors on both sides were in farming, with the odd stonemason, carpenter and wheelwright thrown in. And my dad's paternal line are a long line of wool merchants, weavers and croppers (finishing cloth in the West Riding wool industry). Recently broke down almost my last brick wall to find that ancestor was a potter and china dealer.

Paternal:
GGMother - scullery maid and SAHM
GGFather - second son of the house which had scullery maids! and docker

GMother - office work of some sort
GFather: coppersmith

Maternal:
GGMother - no idea; think both SAHM
GGFather - no idea and a physiotherapist

GMother - everything from a fishmonger to a cook in a canteen, via cleaner
GFather - draughtsman on power plant

Mother - teaching assistant but this is fairly recent
Father - policeman

Me - mostly my role is teaching
DH - mathematician

I know very little about my grandparents' parents; I have no contact with one side of my family. Records are difficult to get since most of them are Irish (which makes sense for where I come from)

Mum's family - Grandma didn't work
Grandad worked in a hotel

Dad's family - Grandad was a businessman, he travelled round the world and they had some sort of grocery business but he died when Dad was 4
Grandma was a sister - she was a theatre sister in London during the Blitz and nursed into her 70s.

My Dad's family were a wealthy family - Henry Simmons was his great grandfather and was my great, great grandfather

"In 1858 Henry Simmons, four times bailiff of Seaford and a great benefactor to the parish church and its congregation, went in full court dress with other local dignitaries to Queen Victoria's court at St James's Palace. There he offered a loyal address on the betrothal of Her Majesty's eldest daughter.

Henry Simmons was related to other old Seaford families and gave various church items and stained glass windows as memorials. In 1898 the Simmons Institute was built in Crouch Lane, his gift to the parish. Dr J.G. Taylor recorded in his history The Parish Church of St Leonard, Seaford that Mrs Henry Simmons gave the carved oak pulpit in memory of her husband. "

Can I make a plea please?

If you become inspired to trace your families back and these days with all the family history websites you can do this easily and get quite far back before needing archives.
Please, especially if your looking at ancestors in 1700 and 1800s read a bit of background history .. to 'put the leaves on the family tree'
Your for bearers will become more real to you if you know about their time. Especially interesting are poverty before 1834 and after when paupers were sent to a workhouse. Medicine, crime, schools, religion and public health. All the social stuff
If you're ever in Nottinghamshire, visit Southerly workhouse. You will be gobsmacked at how pauper families were treated .. and horrified that homeless families were still being housed there in 1980s
history lesson over

Ooh, just found this picture of my GGGrandfather on the internet !

sussexhistory.net/2016/01/10/kissing-the-queens-hand/

Forbearers
It is Southerly workhouse .. phone autocorrect as it posts

SOUTHWELL workhouse

Maternal GM: milliner

Paternal GF: post office worker
Paternal GM: housemaid in a big house

Paternal GGM: country midwife - was know to deliver babies in barns!

My grandmothers: Sunday school teacher; Under kitchen maid
My grandfathers: Headmaster; Factory manager (started out as a servant)

My parents: Policeman; Teacher

My nieces & nephews: Software developer; Teacher; Management consultant; Banker; Marketing.

There's nothing to see here, really. My grandmothers had searingly hard lives: the suffering & strength of women is such a strong theme in history. One of my great-grandmothers was a Cockney gypsy, making her 13 children happy despite extreme prejudice & discrimination, in serious poverty. One grandfather fought in both wars and somehow came through with only a shrapnel injury. All of the grandparents lost siblings to the wars and the Spanish Flu (1918).

Something I often want to say in discussions about muslim 'indoctrination' but it never feels like the right moment ... All my grandparents & great-aunts/uncles could quote massive lengths of the bible: even the semi-literate ones with minimal education. It's less than 100 years since education in this country was as strictly rooted in bible study as traditional islamic education is in the koran.

I'm far more interested in social histories than in my DNA, East. I suppose it's why those are the bits I remember about the olds of my family.

Although it is interesting to see how the aspirations of the older generations influenced mine and the current generation. It's not linear but, looking across all the branches of my family, I can see distinct patterns.

Maternal grandmother - shop worker
Maternal grandfather - aviation engineer

Maternal great grandmother - house servant
Maternal great grandfather - unsure

Paternal grandfather - steelyard worker / painter
Paternal grandmother - housewife

Paternal great grandmother - seamstress/ singer
Paternal great grandfather - unsure