What did your grandparents do?

**Chittychangchang** · 21-08-2020, 06:31 PM

Captain in the Merchant Navy circa WW2
Housewife and prolific breeder, although I recall her working at a Synagogue in her 70's.

Owned a farm and was a drunken tyrant by all accounts. Rented caravans out to America GI's by the hour during WW2 for short times.
Housewife and prolific breeder.

**Happy As Larry** · 21-08-2020, 08:03 PM

Paternal grandfather: no idea
Paternal grandmother: no idea

Maternal grandfather: no idea
Maternal grandmother: no great idea. I believe she was a maid in big house early in life. Later I think she became what would now be known as a live in carer for an old fella
in a poor part of town.

My only recollections of those first couple of years are that it provided a bed for me, my mother & older sister. My older brother had already left home. Being given a wash on a Saturday
evening in a tin bath in the kitchen whilst watching The Lone Ranger and the outside toilet that seemed like it was more than a mile away in the night but was probably only 20 yards away from the back door.

**Buckaroo Banzai** · 21-08-2020, 08:22 PM

Sory to tax your reading ability and attention span
as per request, post deleted and replaced with something more appropriate

**Mandaloopy** · 21-08-2020, 08:48 PM

Grandfather (dad's side): Spy-really!
Grandmother (dad's side) Housewife I think...she died when I was a baby.
Grandfather (mum's side) Headmaster- never met him, my grandmother divorced him way before I was born
Grandmother (mum's side): teacher
Step-grandfather: investment banker

**Cujo** · 21-08-2020, 09:18 PM

Try to be brief???? ^^
Brief is, My grandfather/mother was a.........
WTF was that ^^
We didn't ask for a family history.

**Cujo** · 21-08-2020, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by Mandaloopy

Grandfather (dad's side): Spy-really!

For which side spying on who(m?)?

**tomcat** · 21-08-2020, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

It is a long story and I will try to be brief

...please keep to 4 brief lines like everybody else...thank you...

**Aricius Merlinus** · 21-08-2020, 09:25 PM

Paternal grandfather: Never knew him. Supposed drunk and womanizer, yet he fathered 8 children with my grandmother before she left him. I have no idea what work he might have done.
Paternal grandmother: During my childhood, was a cook for an old folks home until she retired.

Maternal grandfather: Poured iron in a foundry nearly all his working life until he was forced by the foundry to retire at 70. Lived to be 95.
Maternal grandmother: Housewife, hypochondriac, and nag. Died in her 80s, giving my grandfather 10 years or so of peace.

**CalEden** · 21-08-2020, 11:51 PM

Maternal grandfather: Rendering Plant owner
Maternal grandmother: Housewife
Paternal grandfather: Logging Operations/Camp owner, prolific speaker of profanity.
Paternal grandmother: Housewife

**Backspin** · 21-08-2020, 11:55 PM

Dutchies on both sides

Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business

**Cujo** · 22-08-2020, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by Backspin

Dutchies on both sides

Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business

My GREAT grandparents on the Dutch side were into Bulbs and they had a famous flower shop. They supplied the flowers to celebrate the birth of queen Beatrice and other royal occassions. I have some photos.

**Switch** · 22-08-2020, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by Backspin

Dutchies on both sides

Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business
Horticulture business

=
they grew weed and sired dumb progeny.

**Mendip** · 22-08-2020, 12:51 AM

Both of my Grandmothers were housewives.

My paternal Grandfather was a bank manager in Devon
My maternal Grandfather was a riveter at the docks... hammered in the rivers in the sides of ships with a sledgehammer and was as strong as an ox as a result (and as deaf as a post).

**Troy** · 22-08-2020, 01:28 AM

Maternal grandfather was in RN WW1 and one of only a few who survived sinking ship in battle of Jutland. He was engineer after the war. His wife and family ran the farm.

Paternal Grandfather missed WW1 by a whisker and was a station manager on the railways. Position meant he carried on during WW2 and was in the home guard.

Paternal Grandmother was a secretary to an MP and then a housewife. Her second husband was in WW1 but never spoke of it. He was in a Navy or marine (music) band that fought in several of the Ypres battles. NHS refused to do heart bypass for him because he was overweight...caused by complications following one of the early gas attacks ...

**Storekeeper** · 22-08-2020, 03:26 AM

Paternal grandfather: Heavy Equipment Operator for road maintenance.
Paternal grandmother: Clerk at Woolworths 5 & 10.

Maternal grandfather: Diebold factory machinist
Maternal grandmother: Housewife and ordained Pentecostal minister.

**PlanK** · 22-08-2020, 03:46 AM

Paternal grandfather: Farmer and strict disciplinarian.
Paternal grandmother: Farmer's wife.

Maternal grandfather: Worked on the railway.
Maternal grandmother: Nurse then Housewife.

All came from big families and those that survived had big families. A couple died at Gallipoli in WWI. One died young of accidental poisoning. Another stalled his car on the train tracks. That seems like a bit of bad luck, prolly more likely a suicide. There was another that nobody knew existed until my parents started looking into the family tree. He was locked away in an asylum and never spoken of. The only clue was that once a year Grandma & Grandpa would go off on a mystery trip to see no one in particular.

I also had a new cousin turn up a few years back. Aunty got knocked up as an unwed teen and orphaned the child out. Only my Dad knew about it and he never mentioned it. They knew how to keep secrets back then.

Too many words?
Here's a meme:

What did your grandparents do?-awbmq61_460s-jpg

**Backspin** · 22-08-2020, 03:49 AM

Originally Posted by Switch

=
they grew weed and sired dumb progeny.

Growing weed was one of my failed businesses. Outdoor and indoor. If you have a bad business partner but who has the know-how, ur kinda fuct

**Loy Toy** · 22-08-2020, 03:56 AM

Paternal Pop: Dairy farmer
Paternal Nana: Housewife and ran the local post office (as well as having 14 children with my Pop)
Maternal Pop: No idea as he died young but I believe he was an athlete who played first grade cricket and Rugby.
Maternal Nana: Housewife and ran hotels in her spare time.

**tomcat** · 22-08-2020, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by Storekeeper

Maternal grandmother: Housewife and ordained Pentecostal minister.

...skkin mentioned a Pentecostal influence in his past, I believe...

**Saint Willy** · 22-08-2020, 06:46 AM

Originally Posted by Backspin

Growing weed was one of my failed businesses. Outdoor and indoor. If you have a bad business partner but who has the know-how, ur kinda fuct

**Storekeeper** · 22-08-2020, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by tomcat

...skkin mentioned a Pentecostal influence in his past, I believe...

Our mothers are sisters.

**armstrong** · 22-08-2020, 01:37 PM

Mums side: fireman and a housewife. "Retired" to working at a National Trust property.

Dads side: prison officer and housewife.

Edit: wrong way round.

**qwerty** · 22-08-2020, 02:33 PM

Irish Grandfather: Ship's Carpenter before he got married. After that he was Master Carpenter, Joiner and General Contractor.
Irish Grandmother: worked in a China Shop before they immigrated to Canada.
US Grandfather: Farmer who was ruined by drought, concrete wholesaler who was ruined by the Great Depression, after that he just gave up and lived off a sizable inheritance until that was gone. My oldest aunts and uncles grew up well-off and my father (the youngest) grew up poor.
US Grandmother: As far as I know, she was a housewife.

Both Grandfathers were fairly successful and both lost everything in the Great Depression.

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