What did your Grandparents Do?

[Oaktree]

I only knew one great-grandparent, my mother's maternal grandmother. My mother and aunt were raised by her and from the stories they told, she was not a nice person, my siblings and I were terrified of her.
Both of my father's parents were immigrants, so any relatives on that side were in the "old country".

 

[QRTRHRS]

I never met any of my great grandparents. Somewhere packed in with my mother's paperwork that I have stashed in storage is the family history on her side. Her father's side was Dutch. They first came over in the early 1600's to mine copper along the NJ side of the Delaware River. On her mother's side (English), some of the family were massacred by indian's in the Minisink Hills area of PA which is north of the Delaware Water Gap.

I have no info on my father's side other than his father who served during WWI (on our side). He was gassed but survived. German's, I think that they all hated each other, lol! The family that is.

 

[Streetcar]

I read an article that Millard Fillmore ,10th president of us,has grandchildren alive. Millard and his son had children while in their eighties

 

[MossRoad]

Heck, there were civil war brides still alive after the year 2000. One, I recall, died 140 years after the end of that war. 18 and 19 year old women marrying 80 something year old guys. Many (most) were marriages of convenience, where the old dude was getting a war pension and the young woman had a kid and no husband. Then they'd hit it off, and, well, some of them fathered children at that age. The wives would get the widower's pension after the old guy passed on. I just read one where when the old guy died, two months later the wife married his grandson!

 

[ultrarunner]

Lots of interesting background with some fascinating twists...

Many have farming in the mix which is something I would expect at TBN

Surprising how many had little or no contact with Grandparents mostly because they were deceased.

My Grandmother spoke very selectively of her side of the family... one day, as a child I was staying with her and a man comes to the door and asks for her... I tell her someone is here... she comes up and they have quite a conversation... he said he needs money and is in desperate straights... she protests and says something about the "Bottle"... anyway, I ask who he was and she says her "Brother"

I ask my Dad and he said it could be... Great Grandmother outlived 3 husbands and Dad thought there was a half brother in the mix... all I know is the one I was named after was killed working as a Union Oil geologist/cartographer outside Borgata Columbia... the account from the Oil Company reads like an Indiana Jones novel... he produced some of the first maps of uncharted Amazon looking for Oil...

 

[tjkubota93]

Paternal grandfather served in army in Korea. Retired as an insurance adjuster. Wife a homemaker. Virginia/south carolina.

Maternal grandfather served in army ww2. Had alot of jobs early. Milk man, bus driver. Retired as a generator operator at power company. Wife a homemaker, worked at Kroger after kids left. Corpus

Both grandfathers didn't get much past 6 or 7th grade before going to work because their dad died.

Dad served Vietnam era as a navy pilot instructor, is a civil engineer, retired as a project manager for gsa. Mom was a homemaker/seamstress.

I was a mechanic, auto teacher (instructor), auto field service engineer, protective relay tech, currently-electric system operator. Wife is a high school counselor. Tennessee

 

[JamesHW]

Dads pa worked as a exec for the family paints & pharmaceuticals business on the river in St Louis Mo (where the arch is now) and moved back east in the 1020s and worked in the insurance business. Laid off during the depression, he was able to get an part time insurance training position and the family was able to survive by renting an inexpensive walk-up apartment after they lost the house. Heard a story my uncle (career military) found his my grandmother worried because the food ran out so he took his treasured stamp collection, sold it and filled the refridgerator. He and my dad eventually purchased a house in for the grandparents in the brand new development called Levittown.

Moms dad was a well off real estate dealer in New York and was a member of the Blizzard of 88 club.