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?

my paternal grand dad was a violinist.He left my grandmother soon after ww2, and she earnt a living working as a costume repairer (rather than maker I believe) in theatres, where she worked hard, but apprently lots of fun

My maternal grandmother was a secretary and after the 2ww she and granddad owned a "trattoria", (a pub maybe). The worked hard as well.

Mum's side:
Grandad - left school at 16, went to work at cloth mill, joined RAF in the war, stationed in Burma, end of the war returned to the cloth mill where he worked his way up and ended up as one of the directors.
Granny - a very skilled dressmaker until she had children when she became a SAHM. She made my mum's wedding dress. Used to make the best tea-cakes.

Dad's side:
Grandad - worked for the inland revenue, except during the war when he was in the army and took part in the D-Day landings. Used to have a small orchard and grew the best pears ever!
Granny - did a law degree, then married, had 3 children and was a SAHM.

Mother's side:
Grandfather - ran a socialist press in London, emigrated after war, ran a radio station, wrote scripts, produced radio shows. Very gregarious, had a thousand affairs.

Grandmother - teacher, then after war had a radio programme about 'Fashion'. Was photographed a lot. Was very beautiful and gentle and cared about her hair a great deal. Amazing legs.

Father's side:
Grandfather - soldier. MC at the Somme. Died when my dad was 15.

Grandmother - organic dairy farmer, excommunicated Catholic, rather grand and titled and had a lady companion called Pongo, and they used to shout at each other a lot and watch horse-racing and had hip flasks. Scary lady.

maternal grandfather: a miner
grandma: hunt kennel maid, cleaner, dinner lady, carer for a number of elderly relatives (often simultaneously), so they could send both my mum and my uncle to grammar school

paternal grandfather: a ploughman turned lorry driver
grandma: worked in a hospital

Father's father, a Coal miner from the age of 12 (!)
Father's mother House wife and mother

Mother;'s Father worked as a mechanic in the brewary, but died when mum was small leavig 4 children during the 1930s

Mother's mother Took in washing, did cleaning jobs , and cleaned the local public toilets to (literally) keep the family together and fed. I'm astonishingly proud of this woman's determination and drive

mum's mum: SAHM 1940's stylee - drove her slightly mad I think
mum's dad: research chemist with seaweed (they use it in ice-cream apparently)

dad's mum: supervisor in the Western Union office in Glasgow 'til she was 40 then got married and had kids
dad's dad: hospital porter, then gamekeeper, then gardener until he was 80

paternal gf owned a construction company/was a builder depending who you talk to!
paternal gm at home

maternal gf shipowner
maternal gm at home

interesting thread

paternal-
Grandad - owned a tobacconists and newsagents, was his Father's before him. Went ot the local campsites selling newspapers from the back of his car during the summer when he retired - the shop was still in the family. I used to go as a child and help him sell the papers, or mlore accurately sit on the front seat, read the Beano and eat his sweets!

Grandma - ran the sweetshop next door to the newsagents, my mum worked for her as a Saturday girl when she was a teenager (my parents grew up in the same town)

maternal-

Grandad - manager of International Stores, he died when I was 2, lovely mild, gentle man.

Nana - in service from about 14, until she married grandad, then worked in the International stores during the war to keep Grandad's job open for him. worked evenings and one day a week in my dad's shop until she was in her late 70's - dad and uncle took over the shops from their parents (have been knocked into one shop, and opened a couple of others since!)

I worked in the family shop from 13 upwards - was good to have a job to come home to in the uni holidays. Is funny that my mum worked for her MIL long before she and dad were dating, and that her mum worked for my dad and uncle when I was younger. DH also worked for our family firm when he was a student, my sis and 3 of my cousins, my Dad and my uncle still do!

Maternal grandfather - worked in Welsh coal mining but not down the pit, he was clerical, I think. He had a fine voice but turned down the chance to train as an opera singer due to stage fright. Played bowls for Wales. Worked p/t until 6wks before he died aged 84, in 1979.

Mat grandmother - nurse. They eventually left those jobs and were Barnardo's house parents to homeless boys, post WW2. Died in 1959.

Paternal G-father - an inmate of a London lunatic asylum in 1901(!) then a pharmacist in South Africa circa 1905. He died in 1911.

Paternal grandmother - was a Dutch Boer. Don't know anything else except that she died of TB in 1917.

I do know my very-many-greats-grandfather was a 4ft 8in tall blacksmith, with 16 children, in South Africa in the 1600's!!!

Maternal gps
Grandad - upholsterer
Granny - teacher

Paternal gps
Grandad - worked down mines.
Nana - housewife - married at 16 adn had 11 children, don't think she ever worked.

Train driver
Small-scale keeper of farm animals
Soldier
Housewife

On my dad's side:
They both worked in factories, I think, although I'm not sure exactly what they did. My dad's dad was killed in a nasty industrial accident when my dad was thirteen.
My nan had TB and was in a sanitorium when my dad was little. She went on to remarry a couple of very strange men, including one who (this is according to my mother) pretended to go to work every day but actually hid in the wardrobe

On my mum's side:
Grandad joined the RAF at 20 (outbreak of WWII), stayed in for quite a while, then did something to do with Green Shield Stamps and then was a civil servant.
Granny was a nurse (in hospitals originally, then a school nurse). One of lots of children from an Irish Catholic family.

Going further back we hit pretty solid factory workers and agricultural labourers (With a few bricklayers and so forth), although there was a brief flirtation in the late 19th century with railway working, and there's a stray blacksmith in there somewhere.

Farmer then teacher, farmers wife, factory worked (killed when a piece of equipment fell on him) and upstairs maid.

Paternal Grandfather - Civil Servant
Paternal Grandmother - Private Secretary to famous actress of the time

Maternal Grandfather - Cinema Manager
Maternal Grandmother - SAHM

Great Grandfathers that I know about were a policeman and a church organist (my, I am soooo respectable).

Dh's grandfather was a Sir - so I have married up

Mums side

Grandfather: worked in the printers... he was the typist for the local paper
Grandmother: She did all the accounts for the local dairy, and worked in the bakers and also did the accounts for a local yacht buidlers and was the chief guy in the companys PA

Dads Side
grandfather: accountant
Grandmother: worked in telephone exchange until she was a mum.... then she was a foster mum for years and fostered the newborn babies while all their adoption papers were sorted out (so had them from birth til around 6 weeks)
then when her chidlren grew up she started making proper cakes professionaly... and icing and doing all the fancy stuff etc.... which at 85 she still does to this day.... and OMG she produces some amazing cakes!

Father's side:
Grandmother died in childbirth (SAHM until then, 10 years)
Grandfather: army (not sure what rank, but quite high up)

Mother's side:
Grandmother: oldest of 21 children. Her mother died in childbirth (not surprised after that many). Grandmother looked after all the children until they'd grown up, then got married herself (aged about 45)and was a SAHM. She only had one child herself.
Grandfather: worked in a quarry.

Good question!

Mother's side: grandfather was a dentist, grandmother worked in a bank then ran a guest house.

Father's side: they had a small farm then moved to an urban area where he was a council roadman and she cleaned houses.

On my mum's side - my grandad was gassed in the First World War & afterwards had continual bronchial problems, so he was in & out of work - mostly he worked as a night watchman so my nan could go out to work during the day - she worked on her dad's farm for a while & then in her uncle's chippy - he had one of the first fish & chip vans in England.

On my dad's side - his dad worked for a Romanian inventor called George Constantinescu who came to England just before the first world war. Constantinescu invented a mechanical torque converter, a sonic engine and a hydraulic machine-gun synchronizer (or interrupter gear - which allowed airplane-mounted-guns to shoot between the spinning blades of the propeller.)
He also invented an early type of gearless car - my grandad is the chap sitting behind the front seat passenger in this photo.

My Dad's mum was a solicitor's daughter who never had a job, but her vocation was arch-snob and she bitterly resented her only child marrying a 'nightwatchman's daughter'

Mums side: grandpa was an RSM in WWI in the medical corps - doing amputations under fire sort of stuff. To get over his shot nerves he became a prize-winning knitter. His actual job was minister in the Congregational church.
Grandma was a schoolteacher. They married at the start of WWI. In those days women usually lost their jobs on marriage, but because of the war she asked if she should stay on. The school board agreed. They were suprised to find that she actually still wanted paying now that she had a husband! So she struck a quiet blow for womens rights by insisting on that!

Dads side. Granddad started as a farm labourer before WWI- if you've read Hardy you will know about hirings in the market place, he was up for hire like that in Thirsk market. Served in the army in WWI. Eventually became foreman of a cokeworks, must have been good worked because unlike most he had a job all through the Depression.
Other grandma was a teacher too but she died of cancer during WWII before my parents even met.

I know very little about my grandparents. On my mum's side, her uncle and aunt had a shop. (her parents died young). My father left when I was a baby so I have no idea what his parents did.

internersting thread

Dad's dad: Army during war, then printer til he retired.

Dad's mum: On AK-AK guns during war, then SAHM.

Mum's dad: Carpenter during war, so wasn't allowed to serve. Then joined merchant navy. Carpenter again, after.

Mum's mum: Nurse til she married grandad, then SAHM.

Following on from dad's dad being a printer. My dad, my uncle, my brother and I have all worked for or at that same printing firm at some point in our working lives. They print most of the dailies.

wow HappDaddy - very internersting

Mum's side:

Grandfather - Stone Mason, he escaped from the Welsh valleys at 14 to start his apprenticeship and didn't go down the pit. His ambition was to study to be an Architect, WW2 got in the way and he sadly died when he was 47.
Grandmother - was in domestic service from age of 14, then cook at a factory during the war. After the war she stopped work when she got married and had 2 children. She then went back to work as a school cook when her husband died.

Dad's side
Grandfather - Head teacher of the village primary school and part time poet
Grandmother - met my grandad at 20 when she was an Art student and quickly settled down to have 4 children. When they were older she had a job at the library which she was v disgruntled to have to retire from. She was fantastic at sewing, embroidery and crochet etc despite having only one hand...