Oldest great grandparents remembered

[coombs]

I was also born in 1982. July. My oldest great grandparent was born in 1880 so nothing like 1844. But I still have a great, great uncle who is 92. My great grans youngest brother. His nan died in 1926 and was born late 1847 so he remembers her vaguely.

[Nick29]

I think people born in the 1980's should be excluded from the competition ..... women had children later in life in those days 

[coombs]

I think not Nick. And this is no "competition".

[Les de B]

Sort of along the lines of the topic - I know a lady who is only 55, and her father was in the Boer War! He fathered her in his 70's, her mother being in her 40's.

Les

[Emine]

I think people born in the 1980's should be excluded from the competition ..... women had children later in life in those days 

Ah...my mother was a teenage mother with her first child and 24 with me, her last. Yet, my father's mother was 42 when she had him, and my grandfather's mother was 43 at his birth. Her mother in turn had her last child at 44.

I would suggest that though women do start having children later now, in the past they continued having children until it was no longer physically possible simply because they had no choice. The lack of women's rights and contraception is the reason my grandmother had 14 children over 28 years.

[coombs]

Some women had their last baby at about 50. I think just before the menopause some women become more fertile and when they think it is safe they become pregnant again.

My 3xgreat grandmother was born to a 51 year old mother although I do have an inkling she may have been an illegitimate grandchild.

[Redroger]

My 3xgreat grandmother was born to a 51 year old mother although I do have an inkling she may have been an illegitimate grandchild.

Researching rural 19th century Cambridgeshire suggest either there were a lot of women in their late forties who made a mistake, or given the number of housholds where there was an unmarried daughter in her late teens at the time of the birth suspect the grandchild thesis is the most likely.

[coombs]

My one happened in Shoreditch, London. She was given an elder sisters first name as a middle name and her elder sister later had kids out of wedlock who I have found she lied on the certs.

[Windsor87]

I was born in 1987, but only met one great grandparent. He was born in 1915 and died in 1998. The rest were dead before I was born. The earliest born was my great granda Strachan, born in 1891.

When considering my Grandfather though - he was born in 1936, his father was born in 1899, his father born in 1844 and his father born in 1815. Sadly he didn't meet either his grandfather or great grandfather as they died in 1910 and 1890 respectively. His grandmother was born in 1865 (21 years younger than her husband), and died in 1953. Sadly he can remember nothing about her, except her funeral (the funeral was at Pennan, and he heard the bangs indicating that the Fraserburgh Lifeboat had been launched. That was the day of the 1953 Fraserburgh Lifeboat disaster).

There are five generations in my sister's husband's family. The newest born in 2010, her mother in 1992, her father in 1974, his mother in 1948 and her mother in 1922.