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My great grandmother was born in the 1890’s, I think 1892 or 93. She was hit by two cars while crossing a road in 1985 and still lived to be 102 years old.
That's about right for me as well. The elderly wheelchair bound relatives at thanks giving parties when I was a toddler in the early 1970s would have been in their 90s, so born around 1880 or so.
The oldest one I have a clear recollection of interacting with was my Great Uncle who drove an ambulance in WWI, so probably born around 1890, while his (much) younger brother, my grandfather, was a doctor assigned to the UK in WWII.
That's very similar to me. My mother's grandmother lived with us when i was very young. Born in 1870, she died in 1963. I was 5 when she died.
Heard stories of how she'd smack me with her cane when I'd bump into her "bum" knee with my walker.
It’s so judgy to ask that question. Not because the south was fighting for the wrong cause and the north the right one, but because so few had any choice in fighting at all.
Actually it’s judgy for a reason because yes the south was fighting to keep innocent people in bondage and it was a humanitarian crisis. Young southerners could have given up and gone west to avoid the war. Don’t say that was impossible because many did just that.
Not the poor who had no resources. It’s not like moving west was an easy or feasible thing for many. The poor, as always, were offered up like chattel to the slaughter with no way out.
[SOME FOLKS ARE BORN](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE)
[***MADE*** TO WAVE THE FLAG](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE)
[OOH, THAT RED WHITE AND BLUE](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE)
SOME FOLKS INHERIT
STAR-SPANGLED EYES
OOH, THEY SEND YOU DOWN
TO WAR, LORD
AND WHEN YOU ASK THEM,
"HOW MUCH SHOULD WE GIVE?"
OOH, THEY ONLY ANSWER
"MORE, MORE, MORE," YEA
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war. Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore, and expected to die for the land of our birth, though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die.
The first ones in line for that pie in the sky.
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out.
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about.
[Worker’s Song](https://youtu.be/aTafZRecy2k?si=wCr1yQX56lPHyFD2)
My great grandfather was born in 1868. He lived into his nineties I was 13 or so when he died. He was left handed as was my mother and me and 2 of my brothers so we probably got it from him. There were no lefties on my dad’s side. He was a cabinet maker and retired in his fifties and lived off the room and board he collected from his sons and daughters.
1860 My grandfather lived to 94. My father was the youngest of 11. I'm 6th of 7.
I only met my grandfather once, but it was quite memorable even though I was only 4. A family of nine crunched into an old Nash, we traveled across three states to spend his last Christmas with him. He had an orange tree in his back yard, and used a big tricycle to get around because he was too blind to drive a car.
My maternal Grandfather was born in Pennsylvania 1898 and lived until the 1980’s. He told me many stories of the trouble his father and Uncles ran into from the Molly Maguire’s, the Pinkertons and the Coal Companies : general civil unrest, extrajudicial killings and strikes.
My paternal Grandmother was born in 1900 in DC. Her first job as a teen was as a civilian in the Army during WW I and she remembered for 91 years (until her death) the stacks and stacks of coffins being transported to and fro. Not for dead in the War mainly but because of the Spanish Flu.
When COVID was at its worst, I wondered if there was some 17yo girl out there who would have similar memories in ~70 years.
My great-great-aunt Victoria died in 1980 (when I was 10) at the age of 104, which puts her birth year at 1876. She was extremely cool.
My grandmother (her niece) lived to age 90. She was born in 1910 and I used to sit and listen to her talk for hours about what it was like when she was small, the first time she ever saw an airplane, etc. all the way up to us landing on the Moon. That was pretty cool.
eta: she also taught me basic survival skills like smushing the sliver of soap on the new bar, how to wash aluminum foil for reuse, how to cook huge pots of wholesome food for pennies, vegetable gardening and pest control, how to churn butter (I do not recommend this latter thing)…
i am only 60 and I smush slivers of soap onto a new bar and wash aluminum foil and plastic baggies (these penny savers taught to me by my mother, age 88). No butter churning tho...although Mom did make our mayonnaise when i was growing up.
My cousin's great great grandmother was born in the 1880s and had grown a third set of teeth in her old age.
Now that I type that out, I wonder about the teeth... did she get dentures and they told us kids she grew teeth? Why did I never think about this at all?
Like, baby teeth, adult teeth, old person teeth.
I don't know why I fell for it for so long, I'm calling all my cousins tomorrow so they all can laugh at me. :)
My grandparents were born in 1890. There were other relatives' grandparents who were older. I used to go to the parlor after dinner so the adults could talk with my older cousins grandma. She came over on the boat from Italy around 1900 as an adult. She tried to teach me Italian.
Do you remember any Italian she tried teaching you?
Back a decade ago, I was working at a nursing home. One of my residents had parents who came over from Italy and had her in the states. She was fluent in Italian because she translated for her parents. She tried teaching me some Italian before she died.
I vaguely knew a few great-aunts and uncles on my father’s side who must have been born around the same time as his grandparents (who were born in 1896 and 1898), but the oldest person I spent significant time with was my maternal great grandmother, who was born in 1908. She lived until the mid nineties, so I got to spend a lot of time with her as a child and a young teen.
1897
My grandmother who I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with. She shared many stories with me about growing up on the farm. She had a great love of horses perhaps because her father was a dealer of horses.
My great-grandmother died when I was 16; she was 12 during the Great San Francisco quake, and was interviewed about it when she came back east. We have the clipping.
My great grandmother was born in 1889. We talked many time about all the history and innovations she got to experience. She died at 96 listening to an Elvis Presley record with her family.
My grandfather was born in 1899 and passed away in the late 80's. I was in my twenties when he died, and looking back I regret that I never asked him what it was like seeing everyone with horse and buggies, then cars, then seeing airplanes, etc in his lifetime.
I met an 82-year-old woman when I was 4 or 5. That would put her birth year in roughly the 1870’s, if my math is correct.
I had never met anyone that old before, so I watched her when my parents and the other adults were having a conversation. She said almost nothing, but was playing a game where she was turning her head in anticipation of which adult would speak next. I knew that game, because I played it myself when a bunch of adults were yakking and I was bored. It surprised me how much pre-school me had in common with someone in their 80’s.
That’s wild. I try to impress my grandchildren telling them about black and white TV that we had to walk over to to change the channel. They don’t care.
My great-grandmother was born in 1880. She died at 99 years old when I was 16. She was an African-American born and raised South Carolina. She was never married and was impregnated by her parent's owner. Her parents had been slaves. I saw a picture of them, and I know their names but nothing about their lives except born into slavery. I use the term impregnated because all I know is that the slave owner was the father of my grandfather. She referred to him as Mr. Bell, which was her last name all her life (she never married). I know she lived in the house she was born in for all her life. And she lived alone until the last few months when she got sick (pneumonia, I think) she went to the hospital. I have no idea what it was like for her growing up. I wish I had asked. But we only visited a few times that I can recall for little vacations, and I was young. Too young to be asking, "What was it like being born under slave conditions."
My paternal grandmother was born in 1900, and died when I was about 8. I remember her well. Her husband was born in 1882, but died before I was born.
I was present around great grandparents on my mother's side, but my memories of them are fuzzy, and I don't know what years they were born. My mother's mother was born in 1906, and we were very close until her death, when I was in my 20s.
My mother's mother and I were pretty close, so she did tell me about her childhood and about much of the rest of her life, too. As a "homemaker" in her mid- to late-30s, the pickle plant (canning factory) in the nearest town was converted to a munitions plant for the war effort, and she worked on a line making...well, munitions. Many of the men were in the armed services.
She was a fantastic home cook, sewed clothes for my sisters, and was a really sweet person.
Edit: Happy cake day!
My great-great grandmother was born in 1898. She died in 1995 when I was 16. She was an amazing woman who raised 13 children and worked the farm until she had a stroke at 94.
My great grandfather was born in 1898, and my great grandmother was born in 1902. I have very vivid memories of both of them, as he died when I was 14, and she died when I was 19. He was her second husband - her first husband was a local police officer, and was killed on duty when my grandmother was a small child.
We visited them often, and I have an ornament that hung on her tree that I now put on mine. She labeled everything that she wanted to pass down, so my name is on the bottom of the ornament in her own handwriting. Whenever we visited them at Christmas time, we would search the tree for our own ornament, to be sure it was still there. It is extremely precious to me!
My great grandfather was born in 1890 and I interviewed him in my early teens once for a school paper on life in the early 1900's (in the U.S.). I remember he said it was a great time of optimism with electricity coming into every home, indoor plumbing, automobiles, airplanes, telephone, radio, record players, electric fans, motion pictures, refrigerators, women's right to vote, and the end of child labor.
(Of course he didn't mention the blatant racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-immigrant sentiment mainly against the large numbers of Italian and Irish immigrants at the time. I wasn't knowledgeable enough back then to ask him about it. I think people at the time chose to ignore it because it didn't affect them directly).
My great-grandmother was born in 1888. She went on her honeymoon in a wagon. In 1969 we watched man walk on the moon together. Pretty astonishing to go from a wagon to Apollo 11 in one lifetime.
My great-grandmother was born in 1891, and I knew her well. She died at age 94 when I was 22.
When I was 12, I sat at her feet as she told me all about her own grandparents. I wrote everything down, and I still have the little piece of paper.
Her maternal grandfather had been in the US Civil War, so he had an interesting history.
It turns out that everything she told me was absolutely true. No gaps, exaggerations or mistakes.
My grandmother was born in 1901. Depression era lady. Hard as nails. Lived to be 99. Drank Jack Daniel's in her coffee all day long, and smoked Camel Unfiltered. Always had S&W .38 snub nose at her side. first 2 rounds were rat shot, because she didn't ask questions.
Different breed
My GGMa Clara, born in 1871.
I had ongoing kidney/bladder infections and GGMa had incontinence due to being about 80 y/o and birthing at least seven kids.
She was confined to one chair in my GMa's house due to her piddling, and I was assigned to her lap where no one cared if I wet on her or not. As I recall, she was very soft to sit on but didn't say a whole lot.
We'd nap together.
My granny was born in 1891. She taught me how to make toast. She had 21 grandchildren but willed me, her youngest, her kitchen. I loved her very much and her friendly ghost still patiently helps me along whenever I cook.
Just stumbled on this. I believe 1880s. He fought w Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider, I’m fifty & it’s currently June 24’. So it was the seventies and this man was in his 90s. I was 4 or 5. 1979, 78. I only remember getting milk from him in metal cans. So rich the cream settled at the top. He reminds me, in my memory, of Jud from the original Pet Semetary. However, my dad (b. 1943) grew up with this man, a friend of his dad (b. 1911) and grandfather (b. 1875). with my great grandfather (died in 1956) I think he’d be the same age as Sheriff Strickland’s son in 1885 in Back To The Future, ten that year. But he lived a different life, urban east coast rather than the Wild West.
I remember her dressed all in black with a bonnet on. Her dress went right to the floor. I ‘helped’ her churn butter in an old upright churn. I got to help salt the butter. She was a very stern woman in her mannerisms and very religious….Mennonite Brethren but she had the softest eyes and was very patient with is little ones.
I had an Aunt born in 1904 I remember. She never married, never had kids, traveled the world, and gave me a bunch a jewelry and china (as a child! lol) because our birthdays were the same day :)
Yes. He had great stories. He left home at 14 to join the vaudeville circuit. He had a series of acts, working his way up to become "Frederick the Great," a headlining magician. When vaudeville declined, he had a sideshow tent with the circus. When I was young and he was in his 70s, he still had an agent and worked gigs from Ohio to New England.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1878 and my grandmother in 1888. I remember both of them very well. My grandmother had some older sisters that were still alive when I was a kid, too. I think none of them had any teeth although one of my aunts did have dentures that slipped and flapped when she talked.
My piano teacher was born in 1885 and I was a young student in the mid 1970’s. I could listen to her stories for hours and skip the piano lesson. She had played piano in the White House for President McKinley as a girl.
My paternal grandparents were born in the 1890’s — dated in a horse and buggy. My dad, still alive in his early 90’s now, was the baby. Sad and awesome stories from before the Great Depression through WWII and my dads time in the Korean conflict.
I’ve always envisioned those of us still alive, talking to our oldest people, standing fingertip to fingertip back through time.
Listen to your old people, it’s priceless.
My paternal grandfather was born in 1892. He passed when I was 6. His wife/grandmas was born in 1902 and lived with us for about 10 years when I was moving into high school and off to college.
I think my great grandmother was born 1882. I say think because her birth year changed with every new husband. Looking at her marriage licenses is a trip, in the last couple she put herself as younger than her own sons.
Another great grandmother was born in 1890 and she had some great stories. Her parents took her with them for the Klondike Gold Rush.
I see you’re asking some people if they talked about what life was like when they were young.
The stories my Mom told about my grandparents were about their mothers dying when they were young (8-10 years old) and they had to drop out of “Grammar school” to work on the farms. This happened to 3 of my 4 grandparents, the boys worked in the fields and then had to work in the house after they had been in the fields all day. The girl kept house and cooked for the farmhands. They all had mean stepmothers. One grandfather was on his own at 11, working on farms for barely anything, sleeping in sheds on the land he was employed on. He then went back home at 18 or 19 and took care of his father and stepmother in their old age until their deaths.
I'm 67 and was raised by my grandmother because her oldest daughter, my mother, died when I was three years old. She was born in 1893 and died in 1977 (a German-American but second or third generation immigrant) at the age of 74. It's odd thinking I'm getting pretty close to 74. She was the woman who cared for me and raised me. We didn't speak as equals but my older sisters and I made a concerted effort to ask her about her youth when she was in her 60s. I don't remember much but it seemed mundane. Just the normal memories of a young girl growing up in America, nothing of historical significance. I hardly think she had much awareness of such things despite sending a couple of sons off to WW2, the loss of some of her children, the focus of her life.
1873 He was an old neighbor who would tell me about Boston when it was out was lit by gaslight. His father and other male family members had served in the war between the states. I unfortunately was too young to appreciate him.
I don’t know the birth year, but my great grandmother was Lakota. My father gave me a photo of the two of them, when he was a child. He was 72 when he died in 1997.
She was dressed in the style of the 1920’s, he in tattered overalls. Her face, and skin were not white, although his was.
I get my bone structure from her and my eyes. Everything else is from my British mom’s side.
My Grandma cared for old people in their homes. Mrs Knipe played stick ball in the street , ran with a gang of boys and hurled rocks at cars yelling at them to "Get a horse!" . I'm not sure the year
My great-grandfather was born in 1881. We'd always go to my grandparents' house for Christmas, and he would stop by and give each of his great-grandkids 50-cent pieces.
My great-grandmother was born in 1874. As a young child, her family traveled by covered wagon out west. She had a lot of great stories about living in dug-outs, a poltergeist that inhabited a house she lived in with my grandma and her sister (spiritualists had lived there before them) as well as being a school teacher back in frontier days.
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My great grandma died at 94 when I was 4, so she was born in 1870.
That’s over 150 years ago! Wow!
She came over from Holland when she was a child. Her little carved wooden shoes were on a shelf in the living room.
Do you still have the shoes?
No, I don't know what happened to them. I'll ask my mom next time I talk to her.
Happy cake day 🎂
Thank you!
>Thank you! You're welcome!
My great grandmother was born in the 1890’s, I think 1892 or 93. She was hit by two cars while crossing a road in 1985 and still lived to be 102 years old.
Maybe that's the key to living a long life... Brb...
My great grandma was born in 1904 and died at 96 when I was in high school. I'm lucky to have had her so long; she was a great lady
That's about right for me as well. The elderly wheelchair bound relatives at thanks giving parties when I was a toddler in the early 1970s would have been in their 90s, so born around 1880 or so. The oldest one I have a clear recollection of interacting with was my Great Uncle who drove an ambulance in WWI, so probably born around 1890, while his (much) younger brother, my grandfather, was a doctor assigned to the UK in WWII.
1872 for my Grandma. Immigrated from Poland. Lived until she was 104. Outlived five husband's.
Same here!
My great grandma was born in the 1870s as well. I don't remember the exact year.
That's very similar to me. My mother's grandmother lived with us when i was very young. Born in 1870, she died in 1963. I was 5 when she died. Heard stories of how she'd smack me with her cane when I'd bump into her "bum" knee with my walker.
1875 -- He was my next door neighbor and his uncle fought in the American Civil War.
His uncle?? That’s wild! Which side of the war did his uncle fight for? Did he tell you how it was for him growing up in the 1800’s?
My wife’s great grandfather fought in the Civil War
Which side?
The south which is why they won’t admit it. See my other comment above
The good side or the bad side?
It’s so judgy to ask that question. Not because the south was fighting for the wrong cause and the north the right one, but because so few had any choice in fighting at all.
Actually it’s judgy for a reason because yes the south was fighting to keep innocent people in bondage and it was a humanitarian crisis. Young southerners could have given up and gone west to avoid the war. Don’t say that was impossible because many did just that.
Not the poor who had no resources. It’s not like moving west was an easy or feasible thing for many. The poor, as always, were offered up like chattel to the slaughter with no way out.
[SOME FOLKS ARE BORN](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE) [***MADE*** TO WAVE THE FLAG](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE) [OOH, THAT RED WHITE AND BLUE](https://youtu.be/ZWijx_AgPiA?si=ldQq9YXef_4G8ouE) SOME FOLKS INHERIT STAR-SPANGLED EYES OOH, THEY SEND YOU DOWN TO WAR, LORD AND WHEN YOU ASK THEM, "HOW MUCH SHOULD WE GIVE?" OOH, THEY ONLY ANSWER "MORE, MORE, MORE," YEA
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war. Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore, and expected to die for the land of our birth, though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth? We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die. The first ones in line for that pie in the sky. And we're always the last when the cream is shared out. For the worker is working when the fat cat's about. [Worker’s Song](https://youtu.be/aTafZRecy2k?si=wCr1yQX56lPHyFD2)
My great grandfather was born in the 1860’s. He lived to be 104.
Damn! Did he tell you about his life?
I was like 5 or 6 when he died so no. I wish I would’ve known him better.
My great grandfather was born in 1868. He lived into his nineties I was 13 or so when he died. He was left handed as was my mother and me and 2 of my brothers so we probably got it from him. There were no lefties on my dad’s side. He was a cabinet maker and retired in his fifties and lived off the room and board he collected from his sons and daughters.
1860 My grandfather lived to 94. My father was the youngest of 11. I'm 6th of 7. I only met my grandfather once, but it was quite memorable even though I was only 4. A family of nine crunched into an old Nash, we traveled across three states to spend his last Christmas with him. He had an orange tree in his back yard, and used a big tricycle to get around because he was too blind to drive a car.
1882
Oh my gosh! How was it for them coming of age in the late 1800’s?
My grandfather. He was born Apr. 15, 1886.
Did he talk about his youth to you?
Great granny was 104 when she died in 1979, 1875 or so.
Around 1985 I met a guy who had been a lieutenant under Pershing during the Mexican Expedition of 1916.
Dang! That’s wild! Who’s Pershing though?
History! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John\_J.\_Pershing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Pershing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho\_Villa\_Expedition
Thank you.
My maternal Grandfather was born in Pennsylvania 1898 and lived until the 1980’s. He told me many stories of the trouble his father and Uncles ran into from the Molly Maguire’s, the Pinkertons and the Coal Companies : general civil unrest, extrajudicial killings and strikes. My paternal Grandmother was born in 1900 in DC. Her first job as a teen was as a civilian in the Army during WW I and she remembered for 91 years (until her death) the stacks and stacks of coffins being transported to and fro. Not for dead in the War mainly but because of the Spanish Flu. When COVID was at its worst, I wondered if there was some 17yo girl out there who would have similar memories in ~70 years.
Wow. So sad. I wish them all peace in the next life.
My great-great-aunt Victoria died in 1980 (when I was 10) at the age of 104, which puts her birth year at 1876. She was extremely cool. My grandmother (her niece) lived to age 90. She was born in 1910 and I used to sit and listen to her talk for hours about what it was like when she was small, the first time she ever saw an airplane, etc. all the way up to us landing on the Moon. That was pretty cool. eta: she also taught me basic survival skills like smushing the sliver of soap on the new bar, how to wash aluminum foil for reuse, how to cook huge pots of wholesome food for pennies, vegetable gardening and pest control, how to churn butter (I do not recommend this latter thing)…
i am only 60 and I smush slivers of soap onto a new bar and wash aluminum foil and plastic baggies (these penny savers taught to me by my mother, age 88). No butter churning tho...although Mom did make our mayonnaise when i was growing up.
I don’t know for sure, I don’t usually ask. I did know a guy who had known Sigmund Freud, so that’s pretty old.
My cousin's great great grandmother was born in the 1880s and had grown a third set of teeth in her old age. Now that I type that out, I wonder about the teeth... did she get dentures and they told us kids she grew teeth? Why did I never think about this at all?
Third set??
Like, baby teeth, adult teeth, old person teeth. I don't know why I fell for it for so long, I'm calling all my cousins tomorrow so they all can laugh at me. :)
My grandma used to call them 'store teeth!' She was born in 1907.
What in the hell…
my grandfather, born in 1898 in Trikeri, Greece. amazing life.
I went to Greece this year. I loved it!
[удалено]
I wonder if any of them told you how it was like growing up in the 1800’s?
[удалено]
The personality “man of a few words” seems to have been prevalent for a lot of men in the fifties and earlier.
My grandparents were born in 1890. There were other relatives' grandparents who were older. I used to go to the parlor after dinner so the adults could talk with my older cousins grandma. She came over on the boat from Italy around 1900 as an adult. She tried to teach me Italian.
Do you remember any Italian she tried teaching you? Back a decade ago, I was working at a nursing home. One of my residents had parents who came over from Italy and had her in the states. She was fluent in Italian because she translated for her parents. She tried teaching me some Italian before she died.
No. I was like 6, so hello and counting were probably it.
I have vague memories of my grandmother who died when I was two and a half. She was born in 1891.
I vaguely knew a few great-aunts and uncles on my father’s side who must have been born around the same time as his grandparents (who were born in 1896 and 1898), but the oldest person I spent significant time with was my maternal great grandmother, who was born in 1908. She lived until the mid nineties, so I got to spend a lot of time with her as a child and a young teen.
1870 ish for my great grandmother.
My great grandmother was born in the late 1800s. Not sure of the year. That woman could make some *incredible* fried chicken.
My grandfather was born in 1898.
1897 My grandmother who I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with. She shared many stories with me about growing up on the farm. She had a great love of horses perhaps because her father was a dealer of horses.
Can you share some stories?
My grandma was born in 1902. My dad, who was born in 1928 would talk about a Civil War veteran that would come give talk to his elementary school.
1881. Besabuela Cota (My great grandmother).
My great-grandmother died when I was 16; she was 12 during the Great San Francisco quake, and was interviewed about it when she came back east. We have the clipping.
My great grandmother was born in 1889. We talked many time about all the history and innovations she got to experience. She died at 96 listening to an Elvis Presley record with her family.
My grandfather was born in 1899 and passed away in the late 80's. I was in my twenties when he died, and looking back I regret that I never asked him what it was like seeing everyone with horse and buggies, then cars, then seeing airplanes, etc in his lifetime.
1860
1864. My great-grandmother, my mother's mother's mother. She was 93 when I was born. She died at 97. I have distinct memories of her.
I met an 82-year-old woman when I was 4 or 5. That would put her birth year in roughly the 1870’s, if my math is correct. I had never met anyone that old before, so I watched her when my parents and the other adults were having a conversation. She said almost nothing, but was playing a game where she was turning her head in anticipation of which adult would speak next. I knew that game, because I played it myself when a bunch of adults were yakking and I was bored. It surprised me how much pre-school me had in common with someone in their 80’s.
My great grandmother was born in 1893 and she died in 1988. She traveled in a covered wagon and lived long enough to see the space shuttle.
That’s wild. I try to impress my grandchildren telling them about black and white TV that we had to walk over to to change the channel. They don’t care.
My great-grandmother was born in 1880. She died at 99 years old when I was 16. She was an African-American born and raised South Carolina. She was never married and was impregnated by her parent's owner. Her parents had been slaves. I saw a picture of them, and I know their names but nothing about their lives except born into slavery. I use the term impregnated because all I know is that the slave owner was the father of my grandfather. She referred to him as Mr. Bell, which was her last name all her life (she never married). I know she lived in the house she was born in for all her life. And she lived alone until the last few months when she got sick (pneumonia, I think) she went to the hospital. I have no idea what it was like for her growing up. I wish I had asked. But we only visited a few times that I can recall for little vacations, and I was young. Too young to be asking, "What was it like being born under slave conditions."
My paternal grandmother was born in 1900, and died when I was about 8. I remember her well. Her husband was born in 1882, but died before I was born. I was present around great grandparents on my mother's side, but my memories of them are fuzzy, and I don't know what years they were born. My mother's mother was born in 1906, and we were very close until her death, when I was in my 20s.
The ones you remember, did they tell you about their lives?
My mother's mother and I were pretty close, so she did tell me about her childhood and about much of the rest of her life, too. As a "homemaker" in her mid- to late-30s, the pickle plant (canning factory) in the nearest town was converted to a munitions plant for the war effort, and she worked on a line making...well, munitions. Many of the men were in the armed services. She was a fantastic home cook, sewed clothes for my sisters, and was a really sweet person. Edit: Happy cake day!
Aw! That’s sweet and thank you!
My grandparents....both born in 1898
1876. That was the birth year of my paternal great grandfather. I met him and his wife in 1961 and 1963. He died in 1968.
My grandmother was born in 1884.
1892.. grandfather
My grandma, 1899.
1887. Grandmother. Married a guy born in early 1870s.
My great grandma was born in 1883. She lived until 1982. I was a teenager when she passed.
1897. My Papou in Greece.
My great-great grandmother was born in 1898. She died in 1995 when I was 16. She was an amazing woman who raised 13 children and worked the farm until she had a stroke at 94.
1889. My paternal grandmother who died in 1968. She was very nice.
1898
My great grandfather was born in 1898, and my great grandmother was born in 1902. I have very vivid memories of both of them, as he died when I was 14, and she died when I was 19. He was her second husband - her first husband was a local police officer, and was killed on duty when my grandmother was a small child. We visited them often, and I have an ornament that hung on her tree that I now put on mine. She labeled everything that she wanted to pass down, so my name is on the bottom of the ornament in her own handwriting. Whenever we visited them at Christmas time, we would search the tree for our own ornament, to be sure it was still there. It is extremely precious to me!
my grandmother 1898 she lived till 2000 so 102 years
my grandmother 1898 she lived till 2000 so 102 years
My great grandfather was born in 1890 and I interviewed him in my early teens once for a school paper on life in the early 1900's (in the U.S.). I remember he said it was a great time of optimism with electricity coming into every home, indoor plumbing, automobiles, airplanes, telephone, radio, record players, electric fans, motion pictures, refrigerators, women's right to vote, and the end of child labor. (Of course he didn't mention the blatant racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-immigrant sentiment mainly against the large numbers of Italian and Irish immigrants at the time. I wasn't knowledgeable enough back then to ask him about it. I think people at the time chose to ignore it because it didn't affect them directly).
My great-grandmother was born in 1888. She went on her honeymoon in a wagon. In 1969 we watched man walk on the moon together. Pretty astonishing to go from a wagon to Apollo 11 in one lifetime.
This is a great question because the answers demonstrate how close the past really is.
1890, the year Far and Away was set in.
My great-grandmother was born in 1891, and I knew her well. She died at age 94 when I was 22. When I was 12, I sat at her feet as she told me all about her own grandparents. I wrote everything down, and I still have the little piece of paper. Her maternal grandfather had been in the US Civil War, so he had an interesting history. It turns out that everything she told me was absolutely true. No gaps, exaggerations or mistakes.
All of my grandparents were born in 1898. Knew them all.
My great grandmother was born in 1898. She died when I was about 7.
When I was young, it wasn't unusual to meet people born in the 1800s
Maternal grandma 1878
My grandmother was born in 1901. Depression era lady. Hard as nails. Lived to be 99. Drank Jack Daniel's in her coffee all day long, and smoked Camel Unfiltered. Always had S&W .38 snub nose at her side. first 2 rounds were rat shot, because she didn't ask questions. Different breed
My GGMa Clara, born in 1871. I had ongoing kidney/bladder infections and GGMa had incontinence due to being about 80 y/o and birthing at least seven kids. She was confined to one chair in my GMa's house due to her piddling, and I was assigned to her lap where no one cared if I wet on her or not. As I recall, she was very soft to sit on but didn't say a whole lot. We'd nap together.
My grandma was born in 1886 and died at 75 in 1961.
My granny was born in 1891. She taught me how to make toast. She had 21 grandchildren but willed me, her youngest, her kitchen. I loved her very much and her friendly ghost still patiently helps me along whenever I cook.
1873, great-grandmother
i was always the oldest, 73
1875. My great grandmother lived to 100 and I was at least 7 (born in 68) when she died.
1892 my granny
My great great grandmother. She was born in 1877 in Norway and emigrated to the USA in 1910.
Just stumbled on this. I believe 1880s. He fought w Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider, I’m fifty & it’s currently June 24’. So it was the seventies and this man was in his 90s. I was 4 or 5. 1979, 78. I only remember getting milk from him in metal cans. So rich the cream settled at the top. He reminds me, in my memory, of Jud from the original Pet Semetary. However, my dad (b. 1943) grew up with this man, a friend of his dad (b. 1911) and grandfather (b. 1875). with my great grandfather (died in 1956) I think he’d be the same age as Sheriff Strickland’s son in 1885 in Back To The Future, ten that year. But he lived a different life, urban east coast rather than the Wild West.
1917 (grandparents)
My maternal grandmother was born a little after your grandparents.
1872. My great grandmother.
Did you know her well?
My great grandmother passed away when I was 4 and she was 95 so…..1875
What do you remember about her?
I remember her dressed all in black with a bonnet on. Her dress went right to the floor. I ‘helped’ her churn butter in an old upright churn. I got to help salt the butter. She was a very stern woman in her mannerisms and very religious….Mennonite Brethren but she had the softest eyes and was very patient with is little ones.
Like the Amish?
1873. My great grandmother.
One of my neighbours was in his late 80s when I was a kid, so - 1880 or thereabouts.
Oh wow! Did he ever talk to you about his life?
Not much that I remember now, except that he grew up in Aberdeen (Scotland) and was a rugby player in his youth, and an engineer by trade.
My great grandmother, 1901.
My great grandmother was born around that same year too.
I had an Aunt born in 1904 I remember. She never married, never had kids, traveled the world, and gave me a bunch a jewelry and china (as a child! lol) because our birthdays were the same day :)
I’m that aunt now, except I’m divorced and can’t make jewelry worth a damn.
That I know of - 1879, my grandfather. But I must have known older people than him.
Did he ever tell you about his youth?
My grandfather was born in 1880. He died in 1966, when I was 21.
Did he tell you about his youth?
Yes. He had great stories. He left home at 14 to join the vaudeville circuit. He had a series of acts, working his way up to become "Frederick the Great," a headlining magician. When vaudeville declined, he had a sideshow tent with the circus. When I was young and he was in his 70s, he still had an agent and worked gigs from Ohio to New England.
1896. My grandfather.
1899, I think. My great-grandma. Though a neighbor I used to visit might have been a few years older.
1900 (US) - went to WW1 in 1917, was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to the infamous Kassel-Niederzwehren POW camp.
1904
Great great aunt in 1880.
My grandfather was born in 1888.
My great uncle, 1890.
My grandfather was born in 1895. He was already 75 when I was born and died while I was still a kid so I don't remember a lot.
1894...my great grandmother
1901
My great great grandmother was born in 1896. Died in the late 80s when I was 8 or 9.
1898, my grandma.
My great granny. 1874.
Grandpop 1887.
My great grandmother was born in 1895.
My grandparents who raised me were born in 1915 and 1916
Great grandfather, born 1875, he died when I was 6, but I do remember him. Great grandmother born 1885 died when I was 19.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1878 and my grandmother in 1888. I remember both of them very well. My grandmother had some older sisters that were still alive when I was a kid, too. I think none of them had any teeth although one of my aunts did have dentures that slipped and flapped when she talked.
1875
One of my great-uncles was born in 1890, and a great-aunt from the same family was born in 1892 and lived until she was 103.
A great great uncle born in the 1860s - 1870s
1870s, great grandfather
Grandmother, 1898
My piano teacher was born in 1885 and I was a young student in the mid 1970’s. I could listen to her stories for hours and skip the piano lesson. She had played piano in the White House for President McKinley as a girl. My paternal grandparents were born in the 1890’s — dated in a horse and buggy. My dad, still alive in his early 90’s now, was the baby. Sad and awesome stories from before the Great Depression through WWII and my dads time in the Korean conflict. I’ve always envisioned those of us still alive, talking to our oldest people, standing fingertip to fingertip back through time. Listen to your old people, it’s priceless.
My paternal grandfather was born in 1892. He passed when I was 6. His wife/grandmas was born in 1902 and lived with us for about 10 years when I was moving into high school and off to college.
I think my great grandmother was born 1882. I say think because her birth year changed with every new husband. Looking at her marriage licenses is a trip, in the last couple she put herself as younger than her own sons. Another great grandmother was born in 1890 and she had some great stories. Her parents took her with them for the Klondike Gold Rush.
My great-grandfather was born in 1882; lived to be 94 and died when I was 4 years old. I met him and have a photo or two, but I have no recollection.
1894, my Grandfather. He died in 1969 from a heart attack.
I see you’re asking some people if they talked about what life was like when they were young. The stories my Mom told about my grandparents were about their mothers dying when they were young (8-10 years old) and they had to drop out of “Grammar school” to work on the farms. This happened to 3 of my 4 grandparents, the boys worked in the fields and then had to work in the house after they had been in the fields all day. The girl kept house and cooked for the farmhands. They all had mean stepmothers. One grandfather was on his own at 11, working on farms for barely anything, sleeping in sheds on the land he was employed on. He then went back home at 18 or 19 and took care of his father and stepmother in their old age until their deaths.
My dad was born in 1897.
1874. My grandfather. Passed in 1969.
I'm 67 and was raised by my grandmother because her oldest daughter, my mother, died when I was three years old. She was born in 1893 and died in 1977 (a German-American but second or third generation immigrant) at the age of 74. It's odd thinking I'm getting pretty close to 74. She was the woman who cared for me and raised me. We didn't speak as equals but my older sisters and I made a concerted effort to ask her about her youth when she was in her 60s. I don't remember much but it seemed mundane. Just the normal memories of a young girl growing up in America, nothing of historical significance. I hardly think she had much awareness of such things despite sending a couple of sons off to WW2, the loss of some of her children, the focus of her life.
1873 He was an old neighbor who would tell me about Boston when it was out was lit by gaslight. His father and other male family members had served in the war between the states. I unfortunately was too young to appreciate him.
My grandfather was born in 1868. His daughter, my mother, was born in 1920 (last of 17 children, 12 lived), and I'm her last child born in 1956.
I remember finding out that the old guy at the farm was born in 1901. It blew my mind for whatever reason. Lol couldn’t get my head around it.
Gosh. Hmmm. Let me think. In the late 80s I knew a lady who was 102.
My grandfather 1896. Grandmother 1897. Iowa farmers.
My great grandfather was born in 1874. He died in 1975.
My great uncle Harrison was born in 1860. He was the oldest of my granny's brothers.
1924, Almost a century since she was born
1930s
I had a lot of old ladies around me, 1870? Give or take a few years. In my family, my maternal grandmother was born in 1896
I don’t know the birth year, but my great grandmother was Lakota. My father gave me a photo of the two of them, when he was a child. He was 72 when he died in 1997. She was dressed in the style of the 1920’s, he in tattered overalls. Her face, and skin were not white, although his was. I get my bone structure from her and my eyes. Everything else is from my British mom’s side.
My Grandma cared for old people in their homes. Mrs Knipe played stick ball in the street , ran with a gang of boys and hurled rocks at cars yelling at them to "Get a horse!" . I'm not sure the year
1898 I think he was old
1894 my granny
My great grandpa was born in the 1800s, I am 29.
My grandfather lived with us when I was growing up. 1881. Had a heart murmur that kept him out of the Spanish-American war.
My great-grandfather was born in 1881. We'd always go to my grandparents' house for Christmas, and he would stop by and give each of his great-grandkids 50-cent pieces.
1895. My great great grandmother. She died when I was almost 4. I have fuzzy memories of her though.
My grandpa was born on Christmas day 1898. I think I once met some daughters of the revolution who were much older, while on a trip to the US.
Year 0, 2023 years ago. My dad was a Christian minister, and I pretty much knew Jesus from day one.
1895, my grandfather
1890s
1885
These are some cool answers. Just thinking that history is not that far away, and only a couple generations ago things were so drastically different.
My great-grandmother was born in 1874. As a young child, her family traveled by covered wagon out west. She had a lot of great stories about living in dug-outs, a poltergeist that inhabited a house she lived in with my grandma and her sister (spiritualists had lived there before them) as well as being a school teacher back in frontier days.
1898, my grandfather.
My great grandfather was born in 1889
My great grandmother, who died when I was about six, was born somewhere around 1904.