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?

Dad's side:

Grandpa - in family business, doing all kinds of import/export with Burma. Business (and all private family possessions) expropriated by Burmese govt when it became communist & all members of family expelled; still the case that if someone with my surname on their passport goes to Burma they are liable to arrest & imprisonment. (Happened to a cousin of Dad's.)

Granny - not sure if anything of a real work nature; she died before I was born.

Mum's side:

Grandpa - headmaster of boys' prep school - his entire lineage was schoolteachers or clergy. Lovely completely instinctive child-wavelength man (but with rather earnestly high morals too - he could make you feel very small, if deserved).

Granny - somewhat reluctant headmaster's wife. Not quite cut out for it in same way. Her father was a farmer-and-initially-amateur-engineer - got more serious & with a partner invented the first ever Scottish motor car.

Dad'd side: Grandfather was a plumber, don't know what grandmother did as I never met her.

On my Mum's side, Grandad was a film sound engineer for EMI. He worked on some really cool films.

Granny was a secretary in the secret services until she retired and went on to do volunteer work with animal liberation.

Mother's mother-SAHM then worked in an employment office, did dressmaking in the evenings, great traveller, she followed the Silk Route.

Mother's father - travelling trainer for executives?? then drank himself to death! on the plus side he was a member of the London Library.

Father's mother-SAHM to 4 children, held the purse strings, did tapestry & read biographies,

Father's father - journalist, MP, interested in ecumenical affairs, still funny and lovely at 96.

Dad's father - travelling salesman

Mum's father - worked in insurance

Neither of my grandmothers worked.

My mum's grandfather was a draughtsman until the depression in the 1930s when he lost his job. With his savings he bought and ran a shop (a "corner shop" type place I think). My gran was about 14 at the time and horrified by their drop in status

grandfather-tea taster and salesman
grandmother-housewife

maternal grnadmother-housewife
grandfather-railway worker/engineer

paternal great grandfather-inspector of the poor
maternal great grandfather-train driver

can you tell I'm tracing my family history

grandfather-tea taster and salesman
grandmother-housewife

maternal grnadmother-housewife
grandfather-railway worker/engineer

paternal great grandfather-inspector of the poor
maternal great grandfather-train driver

can you tell I'm tracing my family history

Mum's side

grandpa was a dispensing optician and chemist.. my dad has his box of lenses and the special glasses that they fit the lenses into..

grandma was an office girl, until she got married and then she was a SAHM

Dad;s side

grandpa was in importing/ exporting, retail things

grandma i actually don;t know, but i shall ask her !

Maternal side - Grandad was a chemist, gran a housewife (although she had a part time job later in life, in Boots)

Paternal side - Grandad was a handyman for the counil, gran a housewife

wOnder if our grandchildren will be as interested to read our equivalents?

Loving "tea taster" and "spiv"

Maternal GM: expert wigmaker (taken out of school to be apprenticed at age 8!)
Maternal GF: labourer and socialist (could turn his hand to absolutely everything, my gm even trained him to fit and style wigs)
Paternal GM: lady of leisure (made stunnung embroideries)
Paternal GF: managed a woodmill

paternal side
grandfather - manager of large transport organisation
grandmother - one of his secretaries (she got the job AFTER marrying him btw )

maternal side
grandfather - a bit of everything, from working in cadbury's to being a postman to a fisherman to telephone exchange to something else industrial. Lots to keep the money coming in (5 kids).
grandmother - sahm but died very young

maternal GM - district MW, delivered babies in the blackouts in the war
maternal GF - councillor and barrister

paternal GF - Miner
paternal GM - died when he was a boy

Bobsmum- mu godmother and grangmother were both in the Women's league of Health and Beauty.

Paternal grandfather - local councillor, was mayor when I was born. Also worked for Lloyds.
paternal grandmother - moved here form italy and din't work until later when she taught Italian.

Matrenal grandfather - painter, worked in a lot of Catholic churched restoring frescoes and murals.
Maternal grandmoter - mainly district nurse, though also worked as a carer when she left my grandad.

Rachula!! Hurrah!

I was made to go along when I was tiny - bizarre uniform, but it was great to see my gran and great aunt doing what was their version of aerobics

Mum's side
Grandma - nursing auxiliary, and then she worked for security in Littlewoods (checking employees were not stealing - not standing outside the shop with a walkie talkie!)
Grandad - painter and decorator

Dad's side
Nana - seamstress
Grandad - painter and decorator

Paternal grandfather - worked in an electronics factory. Was a rather difficult man. Excellent gardener though.
Maternal grandmother - worked in a factory when she was young, may have done something else in the middle, but worked in a wool shop when she was older (I can remember her doing this). Deserved better. Fantastic cook.

Maternal grandfather - customs officer in Liverpool. My dad and both his brothers are turning into him as they get older, it's rather spooky.
Maternal grandmother - I don't believe she did paid work after she married, but before that she worked in a bookie's office. Her father was a master mariner who died in a horrific accident at sea, my dad has the transcripts of the messages going between his ship and another one, they're extraordinary. She was the only one who met my DD (her fourth great-grandchild), she was 94 when she died, registered blind but living independently.

paternal grandfather - artist
paternal grandmother - shop worker
maternal father - engineer (he once walked from Yorkshire to London looking for work)
maternal grandmother - mill worker

My paternal grandfather was an actuary and he met my grandmother when she was his secretary . She gave up work when they got married and never worked again.

My maternal grandfather was a company director and Cambridge University lecturer and my grandmother never worked (not sure what she did prior to marriage).

paternal grandpa - clerk for Wills tobacco.
paternal granny - secretary at same place until marriage, then raised seven children. Knitted for England. Both were fantastic amateur photographers with a darkroom at home, and obsessive vegetable growers.
maternal grandpa - engineer, died before I was born, so never knew him.
maternal granny - never worked (she was from a posh background, had a governess/pony and trap/finishing school etc). Very into WI, needlepoint, competitive flower-arranging etc.

Maternal grandfather - quantity surveyor
Maternal grandmother - nurse duing the war, then a SAHM
Paternal grandfather - lab technician at the University of Manchester
Paternal grandmother - seamstress

gfather A: engineer
gmother A: housewife

gfather B: engineer/journalist/farmer
gmother B: housewife (she was a good painter, went to art school, exhibited etc, but shelved the art when she got married, and missed it a lot I gather.)

On my Mum's side...

My Grandma never had to work but was fabulous at all things to do with housekeeping. She always did a lot of baking.. her fairy cakes were the best i've ever eaten!!

My Grandad worked on the railway.

On my Dad's side...

My Nan worked in a launderette.

My Grandad was in the army and then became a prison warden. His two most famous prisoners were the Kray twins! Nice blokes apparently!!!

My mum's dad was a civil servant in the Colonial Office. He was murdered in Hong Kong by Chinese insurgents just after the war. His father was also in the Colonial Office; my mum later married a diplomat and then I also ended up in the Foreign Office for a while.

My mum's mum (Granny) was a nurse during the war and then worked as a school nurse after her husband died.

On my dad's side not so sure - I think his dad was something like an engineer but lost a hand in an accident; his wife, my grandma, was a SAHM as far as I know bringing up her four boys.

Maternal gfather: engineer/draughtsman, did not fight in WW2 as was in a 'protected' job
Maternal gmother: housewife, very gentle and kind

Paternal gfather: painter and decorator, painted planes for the RAF during war (died of lung disease due to paint spraying)
Paternal gmother: seamstress and housewife, very good at swimming

My mum dad - Milkman
My mum mum - school dinner lady

My dad dad - delivered Coal
My Dad mum - died when he was 13.