What did your grandparents do for a living?

[bobsmum]

Just been pondering about the skills etc my grandparents had. And wondering how to keep some of them alive or at least be a bit more clued up about my past IYSWIM

On my dad's side:
Grandpa was a cooper, played the saxophone and clarinet in the army band and kept bees.
Gran was a dinner lady in later life, but need to find out what she did before children. Made fab mice pies and steak pie. They lived in a prefab for years after the war.

On my mum's side:
Papa worked in the thread mills, was in the navy and made jam. Was an amazing handyman - made me a dolls house and my brother a ride on steam train.
Gran was a nurse, a mad keen knitter and had a hostess trolley fully stocked with cakes on all tiers every time we visited. She loved decorating.

Anyone else?

On my mother's side:

Grandma was a cook (how I'll never know) and also ran a pit head pub. She did not work after she married my grandfather, who was a carpenter.

On my father's side, my nanny ran a city centre pub during the blitz in Swansea and before that a music hall. I don't know what my grandfather did. My nanny was very clever. She won a grammar school place but was too poor to take it. I could never beat her at scrabble.

On my Dad's side:-
Nan, housekeeper, Grandad, Hardware Store owner

On my Mum's side:-
nana, SAHM, Grandpa - not sure really but sounds like he was a bit of a spiv!!!!

on my Dad's side - they ran a fish and chip shop (don't know much else about them - both died in their 40's long before I was born)

On my mum's side - my Granddad worked on the railways - as a cleaner I believe.

Gran was at home looking after the children - as 2 of them were registered blind.

Mum's mum was a 'lady' so did nothing for a living. So she could draw, sew, arrange flowers, sing and play piano. However she was an opera singer of sorts. Her DH was in the navy - invalided out after injuring a lung and they went to Oz and farmed sheep for a while. Till he died of pneumonia trapped in the outback by floods and granny and my aunt and mum had to come back home - penniless because they lost the money from the sale of the farm when the bank went t*ts-up. She then got a job as a draughtsman at RRE in Malvern. Needs must as they say and her ILs weren't prepared to help her out financially and her family were dead. Sounds like some awful overwrought Cookson novel doesn't it

Dad's dad was some kind of lawyer by training but went to Africa as a District Controller for many years. His mum was similar to my mum's mum but more of a practical country girl so was also capable of killing a chuck, worming sheep etc. Terrifying woman who didn't much care for girls. I don't think she ever had a job but she did some illustrations for a book of West African birds once. When they came home they bought a house outside Ledbury.

Neither set of parents seem to set much store by parenting as a 'job' funnily enough...

My grandad - RAF
My nan - cleaned for the americans and then worked in the Co-op

My grandad - Scots Guardsman
My granny - no idea!

This is really interesting.

Mum's side
Nan: in service which she hated, was barmaid during the war which she loved (serving all those GIs), she was also a seamstress, school cook, and in later life, a home help.

Grandad: a train driver, steam engines and then locos. He won a scholarship to a private school so his parents were not happy that he "wasted" it. I used to love going on the train when my grandad was driving it when I was a little girl.

Dad's side:

Nan: She was in service before she got married. She then had to support 8 boys and a girl after her husband died and worked on a farm to bring in some cash.

Grandad: army, posted to India at the end of the first world war, then became a level crossing keeper and worked on a farm part time. He died when my dad was 14.

My Paternal side

Father was RAF
grandfather was a butcher
great grandfather Paternal was a butcher
great grandfather Maternal was a RSM in the Army then a Landlord.

Grandmother was a Barmaid
Great grandmother Paternal was lace maker
Great grandmother Maternal was a Landlady, after years as a RSMs wife

Maternal Side
Mother was RAF then a SAHM
Grandfather was a railwayman,
great grandfather Paternal was a Railwayman
Great grandfather Maternal was a shepherd
Grandmother was a laundress
Great grandmother Paternal was in service
Great grandmother Maternal was in service.

I can actually go back many generations and know what they did as I have done extensive Family Tree

haven't a clue about my grandads!

my paternal nan worked in the box office in various london theaters and later on at the local flicks, though she was notorious for leaving jobs after an hour if she didn't like them. (those were the days)

my maternal nan was too busy looking after 9 children to work.

Further back on my mother's side they are all Agricultural Labourers. I can safely say I am from good Hampshire peasant stock.

Dad's side
Grandma - was a nanny (at age 14), then worked in a spinning mill, then SAHM after having children and never went back to work
Grandad - started off potato picking, then worked at pithead (as too young to go down mine, pressure from his Mum also has his Dad broke his back down the mine), then worked in a weaving mill as a weaver, then loom overlooker, eventually working up to manager. He was also in the Marines during the war.

Mum's side
Grandma - worked in a mill (not sure if spinning or weaving) and then was a SAHM, then worked with Grandad in their newsagents.
Grandad - was the Co-op grocer and then eventually bought a newsagents business. He was in the RAF in the war and was stationed to India for 3 years immediately after his honeymoon.

Dad's side
Grandma - was a nanny (at age 14), then worked in a spinning mill, then SAHM after having children and never went back to work
Grandad - started off potato picking, then worked at pithead (as too young to go down mine, pressure from his Mum also has his Dad broke his back down the mine), then worked in a weaving mill as a weaver, then loom overlooker, eventually working up to manager. He was also in the Marines during the war.

Mum's side
Grandma - worked in a mill (not sure if spinning or weaving) and then was a SAHM, then worked with Grandad in their newsagents.
Grandad - was the Co-op grocer and then eventually bought a newsagents business. He was in the RAF in the war and was stationed to India for 3 years immediately after his honeymoon.

I am from industrial Yorkshire peasant stock - they were all farm labourers, and then became miners/mill workers.

Dh's is far more scandalous with Nazi party membership and the like - loads of skeletons on his side of the family. We've always said his family was like an episode opf Brookie with big scandals and dramas, mine was more like Monarch of the Glen where there were just pottering around and maybe the odd scrape or two, but without the money.

Captain, merchant navy
Nurse

Shipping company representative
Secretary/typing teacher

Paternal side GF Anaesthetist
GM Nurse then SAHM
Maternal side GF Bank manager
GM Bank clerk in Army then SAHM

Am very fortunate as have all but Maternal GF still alive

Message withdrawn

lol - yorkshire Have you inherited any of those useful skills?

Father's side:
Lawyer (grandpa) Cricket buff, played hockey, worked for Vesty's (of Fray Bentos fame)
Mother (granny) Keen on arts, the absurd, liberty prints, crosswords, madcap schemes, film and cats.

Mother's side
Woodwork/metalwork teacher at a technical college (Granddad) Passionate about design, technology, politics, buildings and architecture
Shop assistant until had children (granny). Can't think of much for her interests. I really cannot. How sad. Don't think she really had much of a passion for anything much. Was very content, though (has dementia now )

Grandad - not sure really, liked fixing cars and pottering around the garden.

Grandma - Not sure either she liked making things on her sewing machine.

Granny - Ran a guesthouse and used to be a waitress pre dc's. She likes to drink.

Grandad - was in the navy then worked on the buses and helped run the guesthouse. He likes gardening and DIY.

Message withdrawn

Fascinating thread!

Mother's side:

Grandfather was a wholesaler (I think) and died from TB during WW2.

Grandmother was a office worker (Land Registry) and worked full-time after her husband died and until she she retired.

Father's side:

Grandfather was a senior civil servant (in India)

Grandmother was sahm.

Isn't this interesting.

Paternal Grandparents:
Grandfather was a farmer.
Grandmother was a wife and mother and general slave to her miserable husband until she died in her 50s.

Maternal Grandparents:
Grandfather was a soldier and later a career alcoholic.
Grandmother was a wife and mother who died giving birth to her fifth child at the age of 28.

My grandad was the local undertaker. I used to come up with all sorts of tall tales to tell my friends about seeing dead bodies in the Chapel of Rest.

And my husband used to run past my grandad's undertaking shop as a boy in case 'Mr Moss' got him!!

My grandad was a policeman who retired from the force and became a pig farmer.

But he was retired from that too by the time I knew him.

My grandmothers didn't work at all afaik.