Memories from the Oldest person you ever knew?How far back?

[Springbok]

My husbands Gran was born in 1856 and I met her when she was 97, still as bright as a button.
Her tales of bringing up 9 daughters in London were fascinating but the most vivid to me were of going to the  Fulham street Market on a Saturday night  where the street was lit with Naptha flares. The girls with a penny to buy last minute bargains. the last pieces of scrag end of lamb,or whatever meat was going. She would go for the Veg. and sometimes find a boiler Chicken if she was lucky.

Christmas didn't seem to be celebrated in the mid 1850's
as most factory workers didn't appear to have a day off.

Her husband seemed to have tried many jobs,a bit of market gardening in Hounslow where he'd go by Carrier at 3a.m to sell at Covent Garden. Tried running The Railway (Tavern?Inn?) at Whittlesford(Nr.Duxford) but what she hinted ,it didn't work out. Unusually all the girls survived and Gran lived to be 99.

Springbok

[ggrocott]

The furthest I can go is my grandad who was born in 1899 - I have copies of his diaries which take you back to his memories of his boyhood in the early 1900s around the Elephant and Castle.

[behindthefrogs]

My great grandfather must have remembered back to 1860 but I can only remember that he smelt funny and I didn't like sitting on his knee.

[Erato]

I have my grandfather's written recollections of his youth in rural Wisconsin, 1874-1900.

[Sooziecats]

I have wonderful memories of my Nan's brother, Bill - it was only when I started researching the family tree that I realise that he was born not in the last century but the one before, in 1898!

My other Nan is still alive and is now 92 - she has the best memory and can remember all names, addresses and lots of gossip!   Must get to chat with her about her side of the family soon.

Sue B

[Romilly]

Hello there,

My father was born in 1896 and so was a Victorian! He was 30yrs older than my mother, & sadly died when we were all young children. He had travelled all over the world as a Merchant Seaman & then served in the RNVR during WW1; being badly wounded in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. How I wish that I had been able to talk to him about his life...

I remember that my mother used to have a book of pressed flowers that my father had collected for his mother. It was entitled, "Flowers from the Holy Land", & had flowers that my father had picked & pressed in what was then Trans-Jordan and Palestine. My mother says that she can't remember what happened to it.

My father's elder brother was born in 1894, & lived until 1974, & so I was able to talk to him. How I wish now that I had taped some of his memories about his family & his life! He was also in the Merchant Navy & had visited pre-revolutionary Russia many times. He told me that he had once given a droshky, (horse drawn carriage) driver his silk scarf in lieu of payment, & was then visited by the Tsarist police & told off about it. He was a fund of knowledge in all sorts of areas, & really brought history to life for me.

Sorry to have rambled on:-)

All Best Wishes, Romilly.

[Springbok]

Romilly, Thankyou, That was the sort of Memory I was hoping for when I started this thread.

I'd loved to know what sort of things were written in the Diaries mentioned,Wisconsin must have been so differant to the Elephant and Castle!!

And Sue B. see your Nan and see what it was like at school and growing up.. Don't leave it too late

Springbok

[Erato]

My grandfather wrote about a hundred pages on rural life in central Wisconsin during the late 1800s - crops, animals, wildlife, farm labor and machinery, the coming of the railroads, river transport, logging, Indian encampments, etc.  He told of his education in one room schools and later, after the family had moved into town (7 houses), high school at an "academy" started by members of my grandmother's family.  He described summer work on a railroad "section gang" and assisting on a geological survey and an archaeological survey of Indian mounds.

He described many family members, friends, neighbors, and local characters (including a number of English and Irish immigrants) so if anyone has relatives from Douglas, Buffalo, or Moundville, Marquette County, Wisconsin, let me know - he may have commented on them.

[Bee]

How I'm envious of you all after reading all those memories.
My eldest relative was my gt gran , born in 1898 and died aged 102 but refused point blank to tell anything about her early days, if she had something to hide I haven't found it yet

Bee