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?

This thread is fascinating!

As for me:

Pat GF - career soldier
Pat StepGM (his wife) - foster cater
Pat GM - tailor/seamstress and then department store buyer (German met GF in Germany after WW2, didn't work out and they divorced after 3 boys)
Pat StepGF (her husband) - soldier then business man of some kind (they emigrated to S Africa)
Mat GF - chief fire officer (RAF in WW2)
Mat GM - worked in family owned shop then RAF stores in WW2 due to retail experience (popular as responsible for nylons store!), then SAHM active in volunteering
Dad - oil tanker captain
Mum - teacher
Pat GGF - builder (and his father, before that agricultural labourers)
Pat GGF - ??in Germany
Mat GGF - factory manager (pretty polly) and chip shop owner
Mat GGF - family owned several businesses (pubs, shops, wood mill) lost lots of money in the Depression in the 20s

These are a good read.
Paternal GGP: Not sure on the whole but the ones I do know:
PGGFather: Army then Entrepreneur
PGGMother: SAHP then died in Spanish Influenza Pandemic very young.
Other set no idea.

Maternal GPP no idea really but something to do with fishing industry.

Paternal grandparents:
Grandmother - nurse in WW2 then SAHP
Grandfather - Merchant Navy.

Maternal grandparents:
Grandfather - RN in WW2 then jobs various to make ends meet.
Grandmother - nurse in WW2 then factory worker.

Father - RAF
Mother - nurse

Me - Firefighter.

Grandfather paternal: Beef farmer
Grandfather maternal: Doctor

Maternal Grandmother - housewife ( 6 children, between ages 18 and 30!)
Maternal grandfather - Farrier
Paternal Grandfather - Farmer
Paternal Grandmother - Farmers wife - turkey keeper and cheese maker.
Father Garage proprietor
Mother Civil Servant/office manager.
Me - Solicitor turned Social Care Manager.
For my family the WW2 seemed to be a big instrument of change.

Such an interesting thread.

Me: Administrator/Financial administrator

Mother: Assistant nurse
Father: Merchant navy mechanic

GM1: Bank clerc
GM2: Clerc/administrator
GF1: Lorry driver
GF2: Local government official

GGF1: Bank manager and major landowner
GGF2: steel magnate.

Looking at my family history, I think we peaked 3 generations ago :D :D

Maternal ggf - master cabinet maker (as was his fil, his df was a gentleman)
Maternal gf - Pharmacist - qualified in 1906 - his father was farmer/butcher
Paternal gf - shipyard foreman boilermaker
DF - MN Chief purser, then victualling superintendant for shipping line
DM - typist
Paternal ggf - ship's captain
DF's maternal gf - farmer

Maternal gf's father's family were in the wool trade - there are several thousand with his surname in Yorkshire

Mil - never worked
Fil - trained as master cabinet maker, but worked as joiner

DF's sister - maths teacher and headmistress - her dh taught maths too - had 2 ds - 1 economist, the other venture capitalist in the Cayman's
Me - did exams in chemistry, IT and accountancy, currently unemployed
DH - analytical chemist

Maternal Grandparents- both worked in cotton mills.

Paternal Grandfather- signal man on railways
Paternal Grandmother- in service until she married the housewife-6 children

Father - Navy, railways, stores manager for an aircraft company
Mother- statistician for Electricity board, records clerk for NHS

Me- Paramedic now. Have been accounts clerk amongst other jobs previously.

Maternal Granddad - cafe owner then bookmaker
Maternal Grandma - worked in Spitfire factory then housewife
Paternal Grandad - Merchant Navy then painted boats in Southampton Docks
Paternal Grandma - nurse then housewife

I'm loving your history injections, Feynman. Thanks!

Thanks, Garlic, I'm never sure if I'm being a twat with all the little asides.

You know what it's like with research - one's bursting to share! I don't have much of an audience, and some of the joy has leached away by the time I've tediously written up a chronology or rigorously thorough account.

They're fascinating Feyman, not testy in the slightest.

Did a bit of my favourite history research last night linked to occupations.

Spent the evening in The Miners Arms
When you think about it there are lots of pubs to visit doing a bit of history
The Royal Oak, Kings Arms, Man in the Moon, The Iron man, Needlemakers Arms, Neddlesmiths etc etc 🍸🍹🍻

Another slight derail .. found in parish burial records in church in small Staffordshire village:
"Jane B killed by lightening crossing low end field"
Jane was GGM's sister, was 35 and unmarried.
I like to imagine that her death was the talk of the village for weeks ... so a woman with what was probably an unassuming life, in death caused a bit of a stir

great grandparents, (not sure who is who):
maternal - coachman (lived above the stables in a Big House of some sort)
SAHM
ran a lavender farm and nursery
paternal - ran a tailor's shop

mat GM - office worker in civil service
mat GF - civil service, but then translated philosophy from German to English

pat GF - salesman - pharmaceuticals (died young in India)
pat GM - accounts and office for the tailor shop above.

EastMids. Poor Jane.

And at many of the stories on here. I really want to know about the China merchant's concubines...

Ooh this is interesting:

Mine is:
Farmers (ggp's - paternal)
Farmers (gp's - paternal)

Milkman (ggps - maternal)
Shopkeepers (gps - maternal)

Both the farmers and the milkman died early deaths due to having lived a hard life and too much physical work.
Hence everyone in the family keen to move away from physical labour type jobs - next generations became shopkeepers, civil servants and teachers.

PatGF: RAF
PatGM: Housewife

MatGF: British rail parcel office
MatGM: Finance office at council

I work in events for public sector

Maternal Grandfather: Accountant
Maternal Grandmother: B&B owner
Paternal Grandfather: Painter and decorator
Paternal Grandmother: housewife

Me: Publishing production manager

My Maternal great grandfather was in print, so I and my uncle followed in his footsteps...

Maternal GM : Cook
Maternal GF: Welder
Paternal GF: Maths professor
Maternal GM: Housewife
DM: Teacher
DF: Early IT Entrepreneur
Me: L & D

Maternal GF - solicitor
Maternal GM - house mistress in girls boarding school, then mother and housewife.

Paternal GF - RAF fighter pilot in WW1 - and lived to tell the tale, mechanic on early motorcars, salesman particularly of lace curtains
Maternal GM - mother and housewife

Some of my great grandparents occupations were on the maternal side a vicar, paternal side a worker in the colley yard of a coal-mine (so, above ground) and later an assistant game keeper on an estate. Maternal side also an art dealer I think.

Can go further back too, a right mixture of lawyers and agricultural labourers (one branch of the family lived in one parish for generations carving out a living from the land) ... like many families I imagine, But I do find it fascinating and hope to keep on finding out more.

Particularly moving to come across stories of courage through adversity.

Paternal grandparents were publicans. I don't know what their parents did.

Maternal grandfather was a farmer in Ireland and grandmother was housewife with 7 children. The farmland has been in the family since at least the early 19th century, so my grandfather's parents probably lived similarly.

Father is a carpenter, mother worked in a factory from age 13 (in Ireland, different school-leaving laws) but stopped work when she married.

I'm currently studying full-time towards a degree (first in my family) but previously worked as a HLTA.

Maternal Grandfather: Farmer and road contractor
Maternal Grandmother: Chicken keeper

Paternal Grandfather: Farmer and occasional badger-cull man
Paternal Grandmother: Ice-cream seller in cinema during 1930s/40s (glam!)

Great Maternal Grandfather:a farmer, and a labourer/minor landlord
Great Maternal Grandmother: a dressmaker, and a housewife
Great Paternal Grandfather: a farmer, and a policeman
Great Paternal Grandmother: a schoolteacher, and a housewife

Me: Still in academia, also working as a part-time nanny.