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

My grandparents met at a dance. My grandpa offered to take my grandma home on his bike as it was "no big deal, I live three streets from here". He actually lived on the other side of the town but continued to take my grandma home until she found out.

My Grandad got his pilot's license (age 14) before he got his driving license (age 16 - we're in the US). Of course, this happened in the 1930s when standards were a bit different!

My paternal grandmother was one of the loveliest woman in the world. Soft, kind, a voracious reader. She used to draw fairies and clothes with tabs on for me to colour and cut out. I wish that I still had them. She was in the Land Army during the war and loved it. She also had TB in her bones and was in pain a lot but you'd never hear her complain.

She offered a bed for the night to a homeless girl who ended up staying with her for 2 years. The girl's father was abusive and when my gran found out she told her she could stay as long as she liked.

My grandad was in WW2. While he was training, his dad died but he couldn't get leave for the funeral. He went AWOL to attend the funeral and when it was over was arrested by the MPs. He was due to leave to go overseas but they put him in prison for 10 days. While he was there, the rest of his battalion went on their posting and were torpedoed. Everyone of them lost their lives...

My great grandfather was held as a Japanese POW in WW2. He never spoke about it for the rest of his life.

My great grandmother moved in with my grandparents when she needed care and was expected to only live a short time. She died 20 years later, still living with them which she found hilarious.

I'm 51 my Grandad is 98 and up until a couple of years he rode a motorbike he'd built himself.

One of my Grandma's sisters was a Bluebell Girl.

My grandfather shook hands with Buffalo Bill. My great-grandmother (his mother) was illiterate and signed, or marked, her marriage certificate with an X, and the registrar added the words 'her mark'.

Delurking to post on a wonderful thread.

Both my grandpas where in exempted jobs during WW2, both in London. My maternal grandpa worked for the GLC and helped re-house those who where so unfortunate to have been bombed out of their homes. He could direct you anywhere in London using public loos and pubs!!!
My paternal grandpa was an architect and helped to rebuild London after the war. During the war he was an ARP warden in central London and he was one of those on St. Paul's dome throwing down the incendiary devices off the dome. I am lucky and honoured to now own his as issue ARP whistle.
My maternal grandma worked at Bedlam.
My paternal grandma was a Jewess, descended from Eastern European immigrants, arriving here from persecution during the pogroms. She married a Methodist (whose family where not impressed), and whose son became a Church of England priest!!!!

All of my grandparents had amazing lives, and, I wish I had been older before they went. My teenage self was so uninterested, but my fully grown up self would be totally enthralled.

My grandfather was a farmer in the Irish Republic and once shot a British soldier and shoved him in a ditch. He narrowly escaped being hung from the front of the court (now the post office) in the local town which the British used to do as a spectacle every Saturday to any 'rebellious types' . The large hooks can still be seen under the windows. My grandfather had good connections fortunately.

My grandparents met when my grandfather was training in the army in ww2. They got married and he immediately left for India after his wedding night and they didn't see each other again for 4 years. He came back and had a nervous breakdown from what he'd seen (never got to the bottom of what he saw) so they had a hard start to their marriage but were married for 60 years. Can't imagine many people nowadays making a marriage work in those circumstances.

My Gran was a mayor. In those days apparently female mayors were told they needed to appoint another woman to be their mayoress, but Gran refused, said she only wanted my Grandad by her side and he could be called the mayor's consort. Prince Charles visited the area so was introduced to the mayor and her consort.

Prince Charles: What does a mayor's consort do?
Grandad: Just what your dad does for your mum!

My grandad came to England from India on a huge 'steamer' ship. When he arrived he had a few coins in his pocket and the address of another older chap from a neighbouring village in India (my great grandfather had reassured my grandad that this man would help him with lodgings and work in Manchester). He arrived at the address only to be told the man had moved.
My grandad walked around the snowy streets of London (his first encounter with snow) dressed in a thin suit for hours trying to figure out what to do. The money wasn't enough to get to Manchester and he was freezing and hungry. In the dark he heard his name (an uncommon Indian surname) being called and thought he was imagining it. He turned around to find somebody from his home village. He explained what had happened and the man helped him get to his destination.

I love the way my grandad tells this story and the idea that somebody recognised him so many miles from home.

Mombie that's lovely, and what an amazing and lucky coincidence!

My grandma worked in the cotton industry in Manchester. During WW2 the factory went to war production making parachutes.
The girls in the factory were all brilliant at sewing and all had a fabulous set of white silk underwear they put together from tiny offcuts from the parachute silk.

My grandad was too old to be a soldier but still had to join up as a battlefield medic.
He was in North Africa, Crete and then Italy. In Rome there was nothing to do (if you were a married man) but it was really cheap to go to the opera. He started going and became a big fan (he was a mechanic from Salford). His favourite opera was Cavalleria Rusticana.

During the war, my grandmother got telegrams on THREE separate occasions saying my grandfather was missing, presumed dead. My mother was a baby/small child at the time, born right at the outbreak of the war. I don't know if you get a bit blasé by the third one, although I suspect not. (He wasn't dead, returned after the war, they were very happy and he died quietly and calmly in his own bed in 1992!)

My mother can remember during that time that her grandmother was also living with them, and every morning she would buy a copy of the newpaper and then sit and look at it and with a hatpin poke out the eyes of photographs of people she did not like, (mostly Hitler and Mussolini). I like to think of it as a very early and basic form of civil activism!

My grandmother died before I was born. It now seems that her sister (my great aunt) who I remember from my childhood may have actually been my great grandmother. There was a 13 year age gap between the two of them. We’ll never know if it’s true as there is nobody alive who would know for sure.

My grandad played snooker every week with the Kray twins in East Ham.

He and my grandmother were married by cricketer-turned-priest David Sheppard.

My Nanna and great Aunt were born on the bar room floor of the Three Brothers Arms in country SA ☺ they were known as the Murphy sisters and could drink most of the men under the table up until their deaths in their mid 90s.

My grandparents had German PoW work on his farm, the villagers were very upset about this and held a meeting in the village hall, he got wind of this meeting and went too it and told the villagers while they are on my farm to me they are just young old boys and are no harm. The village also took in evacuees. One little boy came with his mum, the Mum was standing in the front room and standing up fell asleep my grandad said ' let's get a bed sorer and put her in it. The Mum stayed for the War too at my grandparents funeral some of the evacuees turned up. Loads of lovely stories

My grandparents on both sides are from Eastern Europe countries, but have a couple of nuggets of information that I think are interesting about my gps.
My gm in my dads side was an amazing baker, and had her own patisserie in the capital city of her country, but this was in the 1920’s, gave it up when she met my—alcoholic— grandfather.

Said grandfather was allegedly related to Dukes/Duchess’ who’s possessions and titles were removed from them (details of which I don’t know exactly)

My gm on dms side, her maiden name is Scottish. Though she wasn’t Scottish herself (Eastern European), I’d love to trace back to the Scottish heritage.

My grandfather was too young to be conscripted for the First World War and too old to be conscripted for the Second World War.

My grandfather was illegitimate. The man who was biologically his father went on to marry his aunt so became his uncle. The man who he thought was his father died in the war and his mother remarried the brother of his biological father, so his uncle became his step-father.

I just realised last week that my Grandmother was only 16 when she was got married and had her first child and it was a shotgun wedding too - She is so proper, I couldn't comprehend it at first.

My grandmother got married a few weeks before my grandad was sent off to war. Her brother was engaged to her friend Violet when he was sent off to war. Both DGM and Violet got a job in the same munitions factory. DGM worked on an assembly line but wasn’t allowed to deal with the actual explosives, because she was a married woman. Violet was only engaged, so she had to do the more dangerous stuff!

My Nanna was in a car accident when she was in her 40s and lost her sense of taste and smell. It only came back in the last year of her life when she had pancreatic cancer at age 86.