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 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!)

Gosh this is interesting isn't it...
(I think buy I'm off to ask my parents now !)...
Paternal Grandfather - Schools Inspector
Paternal Grandmother - Nurse

Maternal Grandfather - Accounts Clerk
Maternal Grandmother - Various bits and bobs but nothing to speak of - brought up in house with "staff" and was nigh on useless as a wife to begin with but turned into a wicked cook !

I'd be interested to see the parents careers too, back to back with their parents and then what we've all chosen to do ...

Paternal Grandfather: Farmer (dairy and flowers, mostly)

Maternal Grandfather: Not 100% sure, but I think smallholder and meat dealer.

On dad's side:

Grandfather - conductor on the railway and then stationmaster at a country station.

Grandmother - milliner until she got married.

On mum's side

Grandfather - worked in NY for many years, probably on building sites. Then took over family farm.

Grandmother - looked after her siblings and helped on her family farm until she got married. Then helped my Grandfather on his farm as well as housework & looking after children.

On my mums side,
Grandad was a fruitier and taught and played billiards and snooker. He also made snooker and pool tables. he was a general entrepenur (sp?) He did many things in his very colourful life I miss my grandad.
Nana worked the market stalls (fruit and veg stalls) and did the office and bookwork of my grandads very many diferent exploits.
They were a fantastic team

On dads side,
Grandad was a handyman and odd job man.
Nana was a housewife.

I have adoptive grandparents also;
Grandad was a builder/bricklayer and owned a betting office.
Nana worked in the betting office.

On mum's side..

Grandad - army as a teenager (WW1) then engineer on tower cranes in Leeds.
Grandma - Screwing the very tips of the noses onto bombs as a teenager (WW1) then SAHM

Dad's side..

Grandad - no idea, died when my dad was 9.
Grandma - professional widow single mother, cleaning 'up at t'big house' and taking washing in.

Mum' side

Grandpa - Soldier then roofer
Grandma - Corset model until she got married and then was an accountant in later life (she trained in the 80s, and worked for 320 years as one before she died)

Dad's side

Grandad - Farmer
Granny - SAHM

obv 20 years, not 320, otherwise my Grandma would be in the GBoR.

Going further back, an ancestor was apparently physican to the King of Sweden and then one of his descendents (my great great great - I think - grandfather was the frist even postman in South Africa!

Mum's side -

Grandpa - army in WW2 then first chief of police for Glasgow dog training branch - he set it up.

Grandma - SAHM then shop assistant.

Great Grandpa - driver for the Royal family
Great Grandma - lady in waiting

Dad's side

Grandpa - army WW2 then bus driver
Gran - ammunitions factory worker.

On my Mum's side, my Grandfather was a stockbroker and my Grandmother was a model.

I'm embarrassed to say I don't know what my grandparents on my Dad's side did.

Maternal grandfather - in the army and was a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma railroad (came back form the war weighting 6 stone with malaria) then worked for a distillery/whisky company

Maternal grandmother - telephonist for most of her life, first with the GPO, then during the war on an American airbase (very proud to have put through a call from Winston Churchill), then with Royal Insurance

Paternal grandfather - owned a carpet factory, philanderer

Paternal grandmother - concert pianist then SAHM, rather grand, loved gardening and playing

Grandad- Binman, made beer.
Gran- Housewife and tenpin bowling champion.

Grandad- Secondry school teacher.
Gran- Primary school teacher and quiz, crossword, scrabble expert.

Paternal GF Builder,in the army during the war
paternal GM haven't a clue, but will ask, think it involved a factory?
Maternal GF not sure
Maternal Gm cook and brown owl!

my mum's adopted dad who is nicer than all the rest put together (although my dad's mum was lovely) worked for rolls royce for years and was in the army as well

both my grandfathers were joiners.

my maternal grandmother stayed home.

my paternal grandmother did, too, but she worked weekends as a maid in a hotel and also took in washing and ironing.

My papa (dad's dad) a painter and decorator. Went blind young and had to stop work early leaving the family even poorer than they were.
My gran (dad's mum), I think worked in a shop but not really sure.
My mum's dad, who I never knew as he died when I was a baby was a clerk on the railways. Died a few months of retiring so my gran never got a pension [amgry]
My mum's mum worked in the glove department of Watt Brothers in Glasgow. Wanted to be a buyer (and often did the buyer's job when he was on holiday) but wasn't allowed to because she was a woman and married.

Both grandfathers were farmers one also ran an agricultural haulage business. My paternal grandmother's brother was a leading politician and her sisters married politicians also, the whole family was unsupportive to her marriage to a farmer.... ffs.

(I asked my mil on hol last week what her father did and she said he was a farmer, but quick to point out a gentleman farmer who did not do his own pploughing )

Am currently researching family history so have been looking into this - very interested in social history as well.

My Maternal Gd was a Canadian in Merchant Navy then came to England and became a railway man, his wife my Nan was in WVS and then housewife.

My paternal GP's both died long before I was born but GD was a Butcher and ran lodging house in central liverpool , his wife helped with that but died in her forties I think. But there are a lotof gaps in my knowledge

my grandad on my mothers side, worked from the age of 12 yrs with a horse and cart delivering beer.
Then , he worked in a toffee factory for a while, then as a bus driver until he retired.
He stayed in london during the war, and his bus was a ambulance at times either ferrying the dead or wounded.

my great grandfather , and great, great grandfather owned their own wheelwright business.

my grandmother was a french embrioderess until she got married. when in her 40-50's she worked in a sellotape factory.

my grandmothers father, worked on the railways, and four generations previously were piano forte makers in bloomsbury, london.
have traced family back to 1790, my grandads mother and behond came from norfolk, and family / maiden name was PASTON , and a small town in norfolk of that name exsits today.
for at least 4 generations both sides of my mothers parents have lived in St pancras, and only spread out since the 2nd world war.

prettybird, you're not related to Oscar Wilde are you!? His father was also a physician to a king of Sweden (hence Oscar's name - named after King Oscar)

Mum's side - Grandad was an electrician, worked for the same company for 50 years - started at 15, retired at 65.
I don't know much about my grandmother who died of childbirth complications when my mum was only 13, leaving my mum to bring up her two little sisters.

Dad's side - Grandad ran away from school to America when he was a teenager and trained as an engineer. He came back to Ireland in 1915 to take part in the Easter Rising and was imprisoned for several years along with Michael Collins. Subsequently started up various manufacturing enterprises and became a successful businessman.
Granny never worked in paid employment but was a formidable matriarch by all accounts. They both died before I was born.

my maternal grandfather was a master butcher and had his own shop in the market
my maternal grandmother used to help him out

my paternal grandfather was a doctor/surgeon with his own GP practice in scotland then more latterly he was a medical officer in the army. my grandmother was a lady of leisure who threw lavish dinner parties and had a couple of maids

Paternal Grandad - worked at Rylands Wire Factory in Warrington all his life.

Paternal Nan - Worked all over the place in various factories and evening cleaning jobs.

Maternal Grandad - Used to have his own shop (inherited from his Dad) sold it and went to work in factory, T & T Vickers I think.

Paternal Nan - don't think she worked.

Cobblers!

No idea what my dad's parents did for a living, as they were in South Africa and died before I was born (dad doesn't really talk much about them). However, from what mum says, my dad's mum must have been a resourceful woman as my gd died when dad was 3, leaving her with 5 kids to raise in a country with (at the time) no social services/system whatsoever and no free schooling - but they all got an education and were never hungry, so he says (although they didn't have shoes, so he claims...).

Mum's side - her dad was a Customs officer, who also fought in the Connaught Rangers during the first world war, and then got involved with the Irish republican movement, thanks to his sisters (who were very left-wing, fiesty teachers in Liverpool - got arrested for trying to get the dockers to refuse to load arms headed for the Black and Tans, sued for wrongful arrest, won, gave the compensation money to the Republican movement!). He could tell great tall tales (apparently he kissed the Blarney Stone on his honeymoon), which has been passed down to us all in the form of a flair for creative exaggeration.... Sadly, he died relatively young so I never knew him.

Her mum was a shopworker then, after marriage, a SAHM of 4 who made great cakes, pies and puddings (I make a good cake myself) and, apparently, had very expensive taste in home furnishings - something my sis has inherited in spades! Died when I was 4, but had a great lap for a story and a cuddle, and a handbag full of opal mints