Tell me one interesting fact about one of your grandparents

[listsandbudgets]

Because I'm bored and nosey.

My nan could speak Italian but only in the imperative because she and my grand dad had Italian prisoners of war on their farm during world war 2

This thread is fascinating!

My dad's father was born to parents who were multimillionaire mine owners. Unfortunately they lost it all before my dad (or I!) saw a penny of it - through a corrupt business partner I think.

My dad's mother was a nurse for tuberculosis sufferers. She caught it too and was sent to the mountains to recover, which she did.

My mother's mother was only 5 when WWII broke out. She was her mother's only child and my great gran couldn't bear for her to be evacuated. Amazingly, considering their only protection from the bombing of Manchester was to hide under the stairs, they survived.

My mother's father was in the navy during the war. I don't know anything of his adventures except the booming of the guns caused hearing troubles. After the war he became a policeman and progressed quickly through the ranks. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal.

I know, I know, you said 'one' grandparent, but it didn't seem fair to leave the others out!

My nan never talks about her family or childhood, she was a barnardos child. My dad was her and my grandads only child so my family growing up was small. My mum walked out on me and my brother when I was 2 leaving us with my dad, my nan gave her a lot of grief for leaving her children.

Turns out my nan was actually married before she met my grandad, walked out of her marriage and left 3 children herself and hasn't spoken to or of them since. Myself and my dad managed to track them down a few years ago and have met them all - my dad has even attended his brothers wedding and been on holiday with him.

My nan still doesn't know to this day we know about them

In the 1930's in New Zealand there was a massive earthquake in Napier. My gran was one of the nurses who was on ambulance duty, treating survivors in unstable buildings. She was credited with saving a number of lives.

On my husbands side, his grandmother was in Nagaski when the bomb was dropped, and survived -later rescuing a number of children orphaned in the explosion from starvation. She was European and treated horribly by the Japanese in the aftermath , ultimately going into hiding for a time - with all the children she saved. She wrote a very famous book about racism that was later turned into a Academy Award winning movie.

My grandfather mowed over the Archbishop of Canterbury's shrubs because he was ogling his daughter (apparently she was very pretty and liked to sunbathe on the lawn when soldiers were mowing it) during WWII.

My grandmother stole a mink coat and box of bottles of wine during a riot in Halifax, Nova Scotia on VE day. The background to the story is that Halifax was the naval base for Canada during the war, and when they declared Victory in Europe the government announced that everyone could have the day off, including all pub owners. Not much of a victory without booze, especially in a city packed with sailors, so they rioted and looted the downtown. My DGM was one of the looters.

I was born in 1970 but my paternal grandfather was born in 1880. He was over 50 when my dad was born. Grandad was an orphan because his mum died and his dad caught a cold at the funeral and died a week later.

Enjoyed these. Thanks for sharing!

My granny was into Am Drams before she got married, and once she played Desdemona, and an unknown man sat in the front row and brought her flowers every night..:)

My paternal Grandma arrived on the windrush in the 50's to become a nurse. She was a bit of a wild child and ended up having an affair with a very famous jazz musician and eloping to Paris with him.

Paternal Grandad, merchant navy, took the saying "woman in every port" to the next level and was a serial bigamist with about 10 children outside my dads brothers and sisters.

My maternal grandparents are very uninteresting in comparison

Invisible stoic old sods right? I wonder if they gave it a seconds thought before they went. I’d bet my Nanna wasn’t even consulted. Can you imagine the AIBU?

My grandfather fought in WW2 and was in the trenches. One night in the trenches the Lord appeared to him and told him to move over to the other side of the trench. He did. They were bombed and where he had been was obliterated. He always said it wasn't his time and had a strong faith in God all his life.

My great grandfather (his father) was German and during WW1 or around that time he came over to England, anglicised his name and settled here.

My paternal grandparents met when my grandfather was wounded in France in 1918 and sent over to England to recover. She then went out to Australia on a boat in 1919, and never saw her family again.

My maternal grandfather was born in 1872, 134 years before my son. We have children late a lot in my family.

Just remembered another story about my motorbike racing granny and her dad.

He was banned from joining the army in WW2 because of damage to his hand, despite being well known for being an excellent shot (whole family supplied game to a local butchers shop).
Instead he was recruited to a secret army who would quite literally have gone underground if Hitler had invaded - there were bunkers all over the place- and he was placed in charge of the division in our county (which included an important military base).
My young grandmother was his cover - for his business he travelled around in his van, with her in the passenger seat, which allowed him to meet with and recruit other members, and took her to training/secret meetings at a big country house (he left her in the kitchen with the cook) because who would suspect you were taking a pre-teen girl to secret meetings!
My gran has been interviewing a few times by people researching the organisation for various books.

One of the few bombs to drop on our town blew the doors off his lock up and he was straight round and wouldn't even leg the police near - after the war it transpired that it had been full of weapons and bombs for the organisation.

My great great grandmother didn’t learn to walk until she was 9, her DM was a traveller, descending from Romany gypsies, who sold pegs. She had the idea that if people thought her DD was a baby they’d take pity and buy her pegs so she’d push her around in a buggy till 9yo They were actually “gypsy royalty” and later lived in the gypsy palace (tiny cottage!) in Kirk Yetholm. I believe this is now a holiday home.

The same family line is also connected to Bill Clinton, my great uncle appeared on a TV show to talk about it. He was sent signed photos of Bill

My grandmother was nearly stopped from coming into England during the war. Why? She had a piece of paper, which a border guard thought was coded language. It was actually a list of quotes from a slightly mad teacher! e.g. "If you are hot, then sit by the thermometer".

I've got a good one. My grandad killed his fiancée's mother accidentally.

My grandmother's father used to keep a gun by the doorway of the porch of their home. It was never loaded, and every now and then one member of the family would take it down and do a 'put your hands where I can see 'em!' And they'd all laugh and go about their day.

When my grandfather arrived at his fiancée's house to take her out he took the gun down and pretended to hold up her mother. But he didn't know that the gun had been taken down and cleaned and had been loaded.

So when he pulled the trigger he shot her, and killed her.

They still went on to be married

Crikey snoop

My grandma's husband died, so she then married his brother. Apparently this was normal during the war. Unfortunately never met this grandma.

My grandma on the other side was very psychic and would often have 'the glass' moving. She often saw her deceased father, swore she saw fairies and was always finding old money on the floor even years after it had gone out of circulation. She was very slim and swore she had some Spanish blood, which is why she liked going to Benidorm and tanned easily

Bloody hell Snoooop!!!

One of mine took a religious relic from a cathedral during the blitz and kept it forever. I don't know what happened to it after she died.

It reminds me of those things we have told no one. I have a few secrets that only I know and I think I may have to write them down for future generations!

My Great Grandad had a pet Mongoose when he was in the army in India, it came home with him & lived for another 2 years.

My Gran was offered a place at Oxford to study history but couldn't accept for family reasons.

My Grandad paid for my Dad's college course (digs, food, the lot) with a bonus he received. My Gran still has no idea

My other Grandad built the house I now live in, I'm only the 2nd tenant.

My grandmothers family were refugees from Belgium and were among the few who stayed in this country. My Great-Grandparents got married without speaking each others languages - one spoke French the other Flemish.

My grandfather walked in his clogs from Cumbria to London to petition parliament to improve the working conditions of miners. On the way they gathered support and sustenance from the people in the towns and villages they walked through. These "hunger marches" were defining events in the 1930s that went on to shape social reform as we know it today. His mantra was a honest day's work for a honest day's pay. Although he died when I was four, I remember sitting on his knee and him telling me that I should be a good girl for my mum and when I grew up, I must stay away from motorbikes, catholics and tories!

Thank you so much all of you for your amazing replies. I've loved reading this thread...let me tell you about my other grandparents

My mothers father was quite a bit older than my nan. He saw her when she was 14 and he was 23 and said he always knew he was going to marry her but waited until she was 17 before asking her father. They were Irish Protestants and had so little money he made their engagement ring from pond reed. They came to England and made good farming.

My father's father who was a lot older than his mother fought in the trenches in world war one. He got mentioned in dispatches (think that's the term) after he went into no mans land under heavy fire and with a gas attack going on to save 3 other men - he just kept going back. THe effects of the gas made him a life long invalid. He lived in Scotland and during WW2 was given the job of checking fire precautions in all the highland industrial installations - i.e. whisky distilleries - he had unlimited petrol and according to my gran spent most of the war drunk on whisky which seems a worrying combination.

My gran was a matron in a boys school before she married my grandad and met grandad when he came to visit his son (his first wife died of flu :( ) at the school.