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?

Message withdrawn

On my dad's side: both grandparents farmers.
On my mum's side: IRA soldier (civil war era), then builder and farmer. My grandmother was a full time homemaker and mother and farmer.

This is a good thread!

Maternal grandfather - career soldier
Maternal grandmother - did service in WW1 but other than that, nothing. She bunked off school from age 9 & was barely literate.

Paternal grandfather - Joiner
Maternal grandmother - went to work on the buses after grandfather killed by drunken motorcyclist. After she died we found a note from his work colleagues wishing Bob a speedy recovery - she'd kept it for half a century

paternal grandfather career soldier
paternal grandmother taxi dancer
maternal grandfather painter decorator
maternal grandmother seamstress

what's a taxi dancer?

sounds dangerous

saigon. danced with soldiers for money....

Hallgerda!

Spottyshoes: your grandpa probably knew the dad of a friend of the family's (who is apparently also a distant relative of my dad's), who was governor of the Bank of SOuth Africa. The friend is now c.70 - so that would presumably have made her dad a contemporary of your grandfather?

paternal grandfather - village bobby in Harting, Steyning, Upper Beeding and later West Wittering
paternal grandmother - housewife although she did lots of Sally Army stuff and could knit for Britain
maternal grandfather - ambulance driver during war and then a southdowns bus driver
maternal grandmother - milliner then an ambulance driver (although she never passed her driving test )and later a conductress on southdowns buses.

When my paternal grandparents left school they both worked in the Wedgewood pottery (Etruria) which is where they met.

Maternal grandmother was an embroiderer & then a florist,later developed into an arch manipulator & emotional blakmailer.

Maternal grandfather was a skilled mechanic,who rode in the TT races on the Isle of Man.Sadly he died long before I was born.Would loved to have known him.

Paternal grandmother-Farmers wife,ran the family farm for 25 years after my grandad died,member of WI,Mother's Union ect.I don't know what she did before she met my Grandad.

Paternal Grandad,Farmer & horse breeder,died in an accident when I was 5 months old,so I don't remember him at all.

Maternal grandfather: Builder/carpenter and also in the NZRAF for a time.
Maternal grandmother: Singer and singing teacher (quite famous in NZ)

Paternal grandfather: Builder + had small farm I think, also fought in WW1 and survived Gallipoli, then invalided out to the UK after being injured in Belgium.
PAternal grandmother: lady wot lunched I think

all this was in NZ, and only my maternal grandfather was still alive when I was born. I met him when he travelled to the UK when he was 90. I do still have a step-grandmother in a home here in NZ, unfortunately suffering rather badly from dementia now.

Most probably!!!! Although he died quite a few years ago, he would have been a little older than 70 I think, maybe 80, i'm not really sure when he was born - thats bad really

Funny how many people on here are from or kno people in S.A

My Granddad on my mums side worked down the mines, and my Grandma was a house wife. He gave up the mining when my Grandma had a stroke and he looked after her.

My other granddad used to work at a bike company until he died. My grandma worked in care homes and as home help for the elderly.

ELF I reckon you come from where I come from

ha I just looked at your profile, and you do! should have looked there first without coming over all Sherlock.

Am I the only one finding this all really moving?
Not only how hard some lives sound, but how so many of us remember these important details with pride?

Paternal Grandfather - Illegal Bookie turned used car salesman --- all previous men in this bloodline were miners.
Grandmother - Lady Who Lunches ... In Morrisons

Maternal Grandfather - welder ---
Grandmother - machinist at a printers or something similar ... she lost two fingers and used to tell children she lost them up her nose when she picked it.

Both from farming stock./

mat nan made nails and grandad was in the army

paternal gf - irish immigrant to birmingham, left young family and generally considered 'feckless' tho claimed Easter Rising involvement..
paternal gm also Irish immigrant, rose to bcm headmistress of local comp. Gave father elocution lessons instead of new shoes.

maternal gm - from S Wales pit village, did well becoming teacher, married gf. They divorced (don't know why). She then lived scandalously with 2nd husband in RAF married quarters before they were actually married. Talked very poshly, not sure why/how.

Maternal gf - biggles type I think, posher than grandmother, don't know his family bcs he died long before I was born.

onebatmother,it is moving stuff isn't it?

Just been looking at census records for paternal grandfather's family and being shocked at how hard his parents lives were. His mother had 9 babies (the first lived only a year) and she was dead by 45 when my grandfather was 12 and the youngest was 6. From what my mum remembers the eldest daughter took over 'mum' duties at just 22.

It must have been a struggle for so many just to keep their family together & out of the workhouse. Most of us don't know how lucky we are...

what a great idea. I will tell my stories then go back and read.

my maternal grandfather ran a small horse-drawn haulage business in a northern town - a grand way of saying he owned a horse and cart and people paid him to use it. he grew the business to a few horses and carts - my mum grew up overlooking the yard - all coal and horse manure. When my Uncle came back from fighting in Europe in WWII he and his cousins told my grandfather the future was mechanised - and he had to sell the horses and invest in lorries. It was a hugely succesful local family business and when my grandfather died all the lorry drivers lined the road for his funeral. My uncle ran it for many years after but with no-one in the family to take it on he eventually sold it - probably about 15 years ago.

my paternal side was much more middle class - they were all photographers/cinematographers. my great grandfather made what is widely considered to be the first ever "chase" film in 1903 - five funny minutes of a burglar with a swag bag and police with truncheons. The family built up a business mostly focussed on developing and printing (remember that? when you sent your photos to a lab?). My grandfather amd father worked in the business so did a variety of stuff, but ultimately, and at heart, they were photographers. Along with various other relatives. My brother is a photographer and I was really moved recently to hear my dad say that he is almost certainly the best of all of them.

My grandmothers did what I expect an awful lot of women of their generation did - which is provide the home, the care, the support that made everything else possible. I only hope they felt as proud of their achievements as their husbands probably did. I suspect they probably did - from what I hear from both my mum and dad there was a strong feeling of teamwork - different from how we see teamwork now, but teamwork nevertheless.

Spottyshoes - your grandpa is probably "between" the generations of my relatives/friends. My Dad is 70 and I think his friend/distant relative is about the same age - so her dad would have been at least 20+ years older.

But SOuth Africa is a small place (especially the white community) and no doubt your relatives will be linked somewhere to my relatives.

I am alwys surprised every time I vist my aunt (dad's sister) and she casually mentions yet another distant relative/linkage.

Suedonim: your family predates mine in South Africa. My ancestor only arrived in 1770!

at how long that post is...but I am kind of proud of my families. whatever that means...

Paternal grandfather - Doctor in Dublin and political activist.

Paternal grandmother - Mother to nine children and accomplished artist in later life.

Maternal grandfather - Cooper with Jameson's Distillery, Dublin.

Maternal grandmother - Teacher and later Sahm.

really interesting thread. respect to Lyra Silversparkles' grandad!