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

I know I started this thread so its rather egotistical but is there a way to gets Mumsnet to move it somewhere other than chat? I just feel as if our amazing grandparents deserve better than to have our memories of them disappear in a few months time.

My grandfather escaped from two prisons.

Listsandbudgets, I have reported the thread with a request they move it to Classics.
Thank you for starting it, it's brilliant!

They were born in the 1880s and I'm in my 40s!

Irish grandpa fought in ww1 but English one didn't
Grandma was a midwife and delivered babies in the blitz. (she would have been in her late 50s)
One lot emigrated to the US/Canada (grandpa went first and grandma followed on her own later). When they were there, their 1st child died and she was so miserable she had to come home.

My Grandad always had a bent pinky finger, and I used to spent ages as a small child trying to straighten it for him! He used to make up all sorts of daft stories about why his pinky was bent, that he was flipping pancakes and it stayed in that position from holding the frying pan handle, that he was picking his nose with his pinky and it stuck like that etc.
As I got older he would say it got run over by a tank!
It wasn't til his funeral we found out the real story. In WW2 he was sent across a river, at night, in a canoe, to see if the other side was clear. He got swept down river, tipped out the canoe, and caught onto a rock, leaving his pinky finger "hanging by a thread".
He still swam to the other side, swam back and told them it was clear, but certainly not safe to cross!
He received medals for this, and other acts of bravery in his time in the Army, but nobody in his immediate family knew about them at all.
He also had a spectacular moustache.

@mirime my maternal great grandmother was a Belgian refugee too

Wow, Toucan. That's impressive.
My granny had a bent pinky finger too, but it was from someone handing her the scissors point first.

My grandmother nearly ran away with a KGB agent

My paternal grandmother was the youngest of 16 children , 4 of whom died before the age of 5.

My grandmother was a hairdresser from the 1920s onwards. In the sixties when I knew her, she still did ladies' hair in her front room, which was set up like a salon. On the wall was a lovely advertisement from the 1930s for the "Marcel Wave", the popular hairstyle at that time.

My paternal Grandad was given some kind of Russian honour after the war, he was in the merchant Navy and his ship was one of the few that got food through.

My Great uncle ( Grandads brother) was good friends with Elvis! They met on an army base ( in Germany I think) they became pen pals & when my Great uncle got married Elvis sent him a tea set as a wedding gift

My Dad is one of 14 ( all lived to adulthood) most people presume he must be really old ( when 14 kids was normal) in fact he was born in the 50s and his youngest sibling was born in 1971

@NutellaFitzgerald my grandmother also worked at Bletchley Park - I've been there today!

My maternal grandparents had 14 children by 1929, ranging in age from 2 yrs to 28 yrs old. They lived in the Gorbals in Glasgow and were breathtakingly poor. My grandfather threw my 2yr old mother in the Clyde because he couldn't afford to feed her. She was rescued by two older sisters.

My papa on my dads side trained racehorses. He came from nowhere to win a Scottish grand national, then came second in the grand national the following year. The horse that beat his was called jay TRUMP so I have 2 reasons to feel bitter resentment towards anything bearing that name.

My papa on my mums side was a renowned expert on stained glass and is credited for saving many rare pieces and pieces of note in churches though out the country.

Actually oddly enough before I saw this thread I found my grandmother's will earlier.

It was in an envelope along with some document from the 1660s which even though the seals had been opened were still attached (they look like playdough). Don't think the document is particularly exciting but not sure what to do with it, try to decipher it first. The calligraphy is particularly spiky.

She was really lovely, I like hearing about grandparents :)

My grandad joined the Communists in 1932 & fought Moseley's Blackshirts. He was homeless & joined the Army in 1933.

My nan was in the ARP underage at 15. She delivered messages by bicycle in the Manchester Blitz.

My nan was asked to be a member of Boney M before they became famous. Can't get through Christmas without remembering.

She turned it down.

My Grandad fought in Burma. One night a snake got into his tent and bit his mate who died right in front of him. He used to terrify me with stories of the Gurkhas and their curved knives. For years he hated the Germans and the Japanese (made a point of not buying their cars...!)
Even as dementia took hold he’d say mad stuff about his time in the war and some of it was the illness but some of it was clearly still deeply lodged in there and having an effect. Breaks my heart.

Amazing stories ! My grandad did all the plumbing for Streatham ice rink.

cakey omg, I want to be friends with your Nan, Boney M are my musical guilty please that I use to torture my dd😂

My grandma was one of seven and was the only sibling to reach middle age. She lost three brothers to the war and tragically her favourite brother died at Monte cassino the day she gave birth to her only child, my mum. No one told her for months as my mum was a sickly baby and she was always very bitter about that.

My paternal grandmother died in her early twenties from septicemia after an operation to remove her appendix. The sad thing is her toddler daughter had died a few months earlier from pneumonia. This was at the end of WWII so I think proper medical care was in short supply.
She left her young son (my dad) motherless and her husband spent the rest of his life heavily drinking and smoking. He eventually lost a leg due to this.
Apparently my grandparents really loved each other and my father was either conceived out of wedlock or was premature!