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?

Paternal:
Father: Methodist Preacher and social entrepreneur
Mother: Political activism and social entrepreneur

Maternal:
Father: Engineer - part of team that invented the Harrier Jump Jet!
Mother: Bred hundreds of children

'social entrepreneur' that sounds so wanky

they bought and set up loads of homes for the elderly and disadvantaged

Dad's side:

Grandad made explosives during the war and then worked down t' pit, medically retired at 45 because of emphysema which effectively limited the rest of his life, had a whopping 8 heart attacks. Made lots of things in his shed, miniature trains, toys etc once he had retired. Do you remember the Government released funds a while ago to allow widows of coal miners to apply for some money should their dhs have died or had their lives limited by their profession? My Grandma who has spent her entire life caring for my aunt (SEN) and an emphysemic husband applied and for 20 years of medical retirement, emphysema and 8 heartattacks all caused by the coal mines, she got £65. She sent the cheque back with a letter explaining precisely why my Grandad's life was worth more than that.

Grandma worked in a munitions factory during the war and then as a rent collector for a few years before becoming a SAHM, looking after my Dad and Aunt who still lives with her (G'ma's 83).

Mum's side:

Grandad was a chef in the army and then worked in a power station as an engineer. Found out in his 60s that many of his colleagues had cancer caused by working with asbestos in the power station. He too was diagnosed with lung cancer and died 18 months later.

Grandma was a machinist for many years and is happily retired. Spends a lot of time travelling the world. Been to Egypt and Tunisia this year on her own and comes back with some tales...

On Mum's side, Grandad was a gilder (a Potter) all his life. I'm not sure about Nan, I know she cared for her sick mother for a long time.

On Dad's side, Grandad was a Steel worker but he died young (in his thirties I think) from the flu, probably because he had an industry related chest complaint. Nan brought up the children single handedly and worked in a bakery; made a fab apple pie

I'm sure I said it earlier but this is such an interesting thread.

Wil have a look at the family tree to see what my greatgrandparents and greatgreatparents worked as. I think they were carpenters etc. I know one ancestor as a teenager was on board a ship in Bermuda in the mid C19.

Paternal GF: Lawyer, v interesting man - they also fostered an abused boy who would now be 60-ish. Was in the observer corps in WW2.
Paternal GM: actuarist then SAHM but also a magistrate. v active in the WI becoming head of the south east or something. Matriach of everyone! Amazing lady who I'm proud to be related to and is still doing pretty well at 94! Had 5 evacuees plus her own kids during the war.

Maternal GF: Editor of the Evening Standard. Pcikled his liver, refused to eat but lived to a massive 87!
Maternal GM: I think she spent most of her life avoiding doing any work and was much more intent on having a good time!

I am so impressed my my Grandmother - who started her own business in Australia in 1905! (OK so she was a furrier - but it could have been worse, she could have been an arms trader!)

She met my grandfather when he came into the shop to sell her some possum skins (or something). He was an emigrant from Sicily, having done the journey on a sailing ship.

Sad I never met them, but the massively extended generations in my family (lots and lots of very late babies - my mother was born when her mother was 40, so was I and I was nearly 40 when my dd was born) means that they died before I was born.

ahundredtimes your family sound fascinating.

Mums side:
Grandad: started life as a cleaner and educated himself at night school and ended up working as a mathematician for the MOD.

Like many very clever people my grandad is quite and I do think I may have inherited his mental health problems but have also inherited his drive and ambition and constant desire to do better and a belief that the key to success is education.

Grandma: was stunningly beautiful so her skills were not in the boardroom! She was mainly a SAHM but also a seamstress and at one time ran her own cafe. She is a bit of an eccentric now as she ran off with another man in the 1960s meaning that she had to work so joined the RAF and then went bonkers in the 1980s and ran off to India to join a cult and is now a prophet

Dads side:
Grandad: railway worker, then the army and then worked as the head caretaker at the London school for girls which I thought was fab as we lived above the school and my bedroom had a fab view of St Paul's. My Grandad was the hardest working most principled man I have ever come across and I strive to be like him and I constantly ask myself what would grandad think. I miss him very much.

I became a teacher because of my grandad as he had so much respect for teachers and for someone from his background it was a very respectable job and I know he would have been very proud of me if he had lived to see me qualify.

Grandma: mainly SAHM spent some time working for my grandad in the school.

On Mum's side, Grandad was a baker, Granny worked in a shoe factory. On Dad's side, Granny had 6 kids so pretty busy (!) but later worked as a cleaner. Grandad did a bit of everything including working for the local council,selling coal and logs from the back of a cart etc. Very hard life.

mum's side -

father - builder

mother - housekeeper for governor of Qld, factory worker, warehouse worker

dad's side

uk family -
mother - concert organist
father - journeyman carpenter

aus family
( surrogate parents) vege farmers.

further generations on father's side - boat people in Black country

mum's side

• mine managers - according to family legend died hunting tigers in SE Asia - am working to prove or disprove that
• dressmakers
• british navymen - stoker
• french great grandfather - carpenter (according to his aussie ww1 enlistment papers)

interestly my father was a builder and very good with diy/that sort of thing as are both my brothers.

Dad's side - grandma was a SAHM and grandad worked in the pit, he was some sort of manager.

Mum's side - grandma was a medical secretary at a hospital and grandad worked in the pit - he fixed the equipment (not on his own, obviously!)

Mums dad was a Hurricane Pilot in the RAF, died in the war
Mums Mum was 'housewife'
Dads Mum was 'staff' for a naval officers house
Dads Dad was a Gunner in the Navy, died in the war also.

Only knew my Dad mum as the others died before I was born, but lived off her and my dads and great uncles etc. war stories when younger.

Forgot that Paternal great grandparents lived at and ran the Anglo Palestinian Club in London between the wars, it was opposite the Windmill Theatre, My father lived with them at this time, and he remembers that his bedroom window was opposite the dressing rooms, apparently half naked showgirls used to blow kisses to him, he was about 5

Great grandads brothers often came to visit

dh's grandmother was a wild and rather naughty young thing dabbling in all sorts of mischief. She knew Noel Coward and corresponded and George Formby and a few other 'names' of the time. She was an avid reader and writer, but never published. She had lots of husbands (about five I think) and lived in style all over the world spending a large family inheritance and any other money she could find. Consequently there was absoultely nothing left for her daughter (dh's mother) except the debts she ran up. I met her a few times when she finally retired to Devon. She looked just like Betty Davies. I am watching out to see if her naughty genes will resurface in our sons. She got on famously with dh whom she doted on.

I can't remember which of her husbands is dh's grandfather.

My grandmother was born in the Fens of East Anglia, worked as a servant in a large house then got into trade and opened a series of fish and chip shops in Cambridge with my grandfather, who was an ex navy man.

My paternal grandfather died when I was quite young and I don't remember that much about him other than watching Dickie Davies' World of Sport on Saturday afternoon with him in a smoke filled sitting room and him growing tomatoes and putting them in his flat cap in the sideboard to ripen them. His tomatoes were the best! My paternal grandmother (nanan) was a housewife with 9 children and gawd knows how many grandchildren/great grandchildren/great great grandchildren. She used to make wicked tomato sauce sandwiches and she was the one we all went to for cuddles and sympathy. She's still a wise old bird now!

My maternal grandfather was a brilliant painter and all round wonderful person who had the unfortunate luck of suffering from a bipolar mental disorder that debilitated him during certain periods of his life, though I never knew about them until a few years ago. He was a wonderful man, calm, patient, loving, caring, and I still miss him to this very day, 14 years after his death. My maternal grandmother was the complete opposite of him with views slightly to the right of Adolf Hitler. She's gotten worse in her old age and could test the patience of even the most patient person, which is why she doesn't have many friends as grandad isn't there to soften the blows.

My grnafather (dad's side) was a cattle farmer but I never knew him as he died before I was born (my dad took over the farm before selling it to his brother and emigarting to the UK to study to become a doctor).

My granny would have helped run the famr I presume - but the key thng I remember about her (apart from the fact she was a wonderful lady ) is that she did wonderful corss stitch embroidery (she had beem brought up in Denmark which has a tradition of this) - which she then taught my mum to do and who in turn taught me.

My Grandpa (mum's side) was an architect - he helped deisgn the Rolls Royce factry in Glasgow during the war - hence hy my mum was born in Scotland.

Dodo (mum's mum) I think had done some nursing before she had a family.

The reason I don't know that much about them is that I was brought up in Scotland while they were all in South Africa, so I only had limited contact with them.

On my dad's side:
Grandad was an electrician and grandma worked on the line in a number of factories, including Batchelors and Bassetts.

On my mum's side:
Grandad was a miner and grandma worked at a factory that made manhole covers and taps.

Good working class stock me.

Dad and brother are both electricians. As for working in factories or down a mine, not keen on either.

Grandad on dad's side is an autodidact and we share a lot of the same interests - books, music, history.

On mum's side Nan and Grandad were really active until their deaths, bowling and ballroom dancing. I love ballroom dancing and would love to have the time to learn.

Maternal grandparents:- Grandfather fought in WW1 ( was attached to last vestiges of Cavalry as he was a horseman) then was a tenant dairy farmer. Grandmother was a farmer's wife. I think Greatgrandfather was a blacksmith.

Paternal Grandparents:- Grandfather was a Hairdresser and ran his own salon until his mid 70's.He was too young for WW1 and too old for WW2 but I think he was an ARP warden. Grandmother SAHM.

Grandma on mum's side - had a few jobs before she got married and became SAHM including one painting the faces on china dolls at about 14 (because she had artistic flair apparantly!)

Grandad on mum's side - butcher as was his dad, had their own shop. He was a Methodist and a Pacifist so he became a Conscientious Objector in the second world war, he had to go to court in London and everything, daft thing was that he wouldn't have had to fight anyway as butchery was a reserved occupation.

Grandma on dad's side - worked in Woolies when she left school and was training as a nurse when she met and married my grandad and had to give it up.

Grandad on dad's side - left the mining village where he grew up in the 1930's due to the depression and no jobs, to become a police constable, made it to police inspector before he retired then became a baliff.

Maternal grandfather - soldier/scientist
Maternal grandmother - soldier in women's army/sahm/part-time secretary for a church

Paternal grandfather -soldier/secondary school teacher
Paternal granmother - carer/factory worker/sahm

On my Dad's side: Grandpa was a Surgeon Captain in the Royal Navy - trained as an Opthalmologist. travelled all over the world (notably India and China) but never spoke about it.
Granny - sahm who had to do 'entertaining' and hated every minute of it.

Mum's side: Grandpa - seemed to have lots of strings to bow. Soldier in war but prefious to that had worked as a paper maker in Austria. Then worked in the Stock Exchange (presumably as a stock broker)
Granny: sahm and general complainer with delusions of grandeur who seemed to think that coming from a wealthy family she had married beneath her. I alwasy felt really sorry for my grandpa - she was really horrid to him.

All dead now (not my Mum!)