What were your grandparents like?

I only knew my maternal grandparents. My mother was widowed in 1942 and didn't get on at all with my father's parents, so we lost touch with them when I was a baby. My Grandfather, aged 56, died when I was six, he had suffered from gas, and was mildly shell shocked from WW1. I do remember him but only just, as a kind man who was always pleased to.see me. My granny I remember much better as she,died when I was eleven She was very active, riding her bike, swimming in the river, punting, walking miles, well, it seemed like miles to me! A good cook and an excellent maker of poppy ladies! Unfortunately high blood pressure and a dicky heart killed her at 61.

I remember all 4 grandparents, and have built up their background stories delving into their parents histories through Ancestry. Well it was my mother who set me off on this path, before she died, with a wish to know what part of Ireland her grandmother came from, that I found out Limerick and they were all very poor and Fenians she told me from what she remembered of some of her aunts and uncles. My mother had a French surname, so naturally I wanted to delve into that side. "Tell me about your paternal grandfather" I asked "he was heavily accented and had a goatee beard" is what she remembered. He also had a factory in London making garments to be precise he was a mantle manufacturer, according to the certificates I have, other than that where he emanated from seemed a mystery. Eventually through one of her cousins, I was to establish they came from Alsace. In the last few years, I found out from a distant cousin that side of the family were Jewish and I have 10% or thereabouts Ashkenazi Jewish DNA. They were all in the garment trade, a bit text book I suppose. I'm very sorry I found that out after my mum died, I think she'd have been rather in awe to know that her father was half Jewish, we always thought he was a protestant, he never went to mas with them on Sundays. On his deathbed my parents and grandmother persuaded him to become a catholic and got my grandmother's Priest to give him the last sacraments and a catholic burial. I think they were a bit out of order My husband often jokes don't get any ideas in doing that for me on my deathbed After the First WW, my grandparents were newly married, and although my granddad had an up and down relationship with his own father because he was supposed to go into the family business, but ran away in his teens and joined the navy instead, he saw the world. He had a lot of adventures and mishaps too, his boat was torpedoed during the war, he was lucky to survive. However, being skint Great grandfather saved my grandparents bacon in 1919 he let them live in half of one of the houses he owned in North London, he had 4 apparently they were those Victorian types with steps up to the door and several floors. They were there until the early 1930s, when they got enough money together to put a deposit on a house in Bromley when it was still Kent and not Greater London. Both granddad's maternal side came from Kent as did grandma's paternal side, from around Wrotham, which I always mispronounced as Rotham much to my mum's annoyance, "it's Rootham" she would continually tell me I have early memories of going to the Bromley house before they moved to the Sussex coast, when we went to stay with them in the summer holidays. My mother told me, great grandfather even paid for his grandchildren to go to private school, and all was well in life until the Irish side of the family put pressure on my grandmother in insisting they came out of that school and went to a catholic one where mum told me "then all my troubles began!" didn't stop her from sending us to a catholic school though I have lovey memories of that granddad walking along the beach hand in hand, him telling me all about the sea and marine life. He was the grandparent who I had the shortest time with, he was to die when I was about 8, but I actually think he was my favourite. I remember my grandmother mainly for her steamed puddings and homemade lemonade. She died when I was about 12.

My paternal grandfather came from Malta he left home as a young man and went to live in France, he was a photographer, and worked for the man who was to become his father in law, who was a horrible person I'm told which is where he met my grandmother who was also working for him. That great grandfather was in partnership with his brother-in-law and had photographic studios in London and Marseilles. When the war broke out granddad went into the British army. Like my other grandparents they married in 1919 and came back to live in London. My father was their firstborn and I believe they lived in a cramped flat above the studio where he worked and I'm told my father and siblings as children had to keep quiet during his working hours. Eventually they got together some money to buy a house in Wimbledon, not the posh end near the tennis unfortunately, I remember going to that house as a child it had a long garden and granddad grew all his own vegetables and kept rabbits who I thought were pets but weren't I also remember eating what could be described as "foreign food" back then, everything was laced with lots of garlic and Olive oil, not unusual now but then it was. Granddad used to shout a lot, apparently he was quite deaf due to all the noise from being in the trenches, but he wasn't angry just loud, also I didn't always understand him because he was quite heavily accented, I'm sorry I was a little scared of him because my mother told me he was a really good person. My grandmother on the other had was quite hoity toity and I remember her telling me off for wearing jeans to a family gathering when I was about 13, she was entrenched in a mindset of what she deemed appropriate behaviour. Her family had had money once, but her father was feckless during his years in France and was prone to visiting casinos he gambled it all away. In his later years he just went and stayed with his grown up children and sponged off them, my aunt told me this. My grandmother's mother died when she was young and she and her sister were dumped on his mother whilst he took off to France with her brothers, they were put in a boarding school there and when they grew up married French women and didn't come back to England. Also one of her daughters, my aunt married my lovely uncle who was here during the war part of the Free French and they went back after the war and I have cousins in France.

Like everyone else who has delved into their family histories just wish I'd had more conversations with all of them now.

My step-grandfather used to sit us on his knee and play a game called "Pork and Beans" in which he would ask us questions and we would have to reply "Pork and Beans" to each one without laughing ..... anyone remember this game?

I asked my mother who is 93 and a great grandmother, about her grandparents, born in 1865-72. Her paternal grandfather was a fisherman in the north east of Scotland, and she met him only once, when he was near the end of his life. Although she now has dementia and Alzheimers, she still remembers him taking her by the hand and walking along the shore with her, aged about 4.
She doesn't remember much about her paternal grandmother, even though she came to live with the family for 5 years after her husband died.
Her maternal grandmother was widowed at the age of 25, with 3 daughters under 5. Once they grew up, she emigrated to Canada but came back to live with my mother's parents at the end of her life. My mother remembers her with great fondness, as an elegant, cultured and affectionate Granny.

My grandmothers always seemed to be in competition with each other! My paternal grandmother had been left widowed with three boys at the age of 36. She was immensely practical, smoked like a chimney, kept her cash under the carpet on the stairs, and always wore a hat indoors. She made chips in a proper chip pan on a gas stove. I was terrified of the noise it made!
My maternal grandmother was very musical, but also very deaf. I'm afraid we children were not very kind about it and laughed when she got things wrong. I regret that now of course.
My maternal grandfather was tall and patient. I remember arriving at their house for a visit and telling him proudly that I could count to 100. He let me sit on his knee and count and told me I was very clever at the end.
My grandparents came to live in our house for a while (don't know why) and I remember that they had an ornately carved wooden commode in their bedroom. Could do with one of those myself these days!
I don't think any of my grandparents engaged with me and my siblings in the way that I do with my grandchildren.

I knew all four grandparents My maternal Nan did lots with me lots of childcare she was like a Mum (my poor mum was working full time) Nan died when Iwas in my early forties she lived with me for three years She had run a boarding house, my maternal grandad was lovely He worked in a builders office in our nearest city and died when I was 16 it broke my heart He used to take me out on a Saturday and taught me how to use a camera I was very close to them

My paternal grandparents although living nearby had about seven grandkids and as far as I know didn’t do any childcare I only saw them on Sunday visits My paternal grandad was a builder but I only knew him retired and in his garden with a pipe in his mouth all the time, he died when I was around 14/15 (of throat cancer) tall upright man with a full head of white hair
My paternal gran died when I was in my late thirties early forties I never knew her to work other than a housewife although I believe she had been a beatster when she was younger I think she led a very subdued shy retiring life mostly in the house I never knew her to go out anywhere at all

I was told my father’s parents died before I was born, in fact one didn’t die until I was a few years old but I never met them.
We lived next door to my mother’s parents and they were evil, there are no good memories at all.

I still have lovely memories of my maternal grandparents.They lived close to us and we saw them alot, were a great influence on our lives.Both had left school at 13 and straight out to work, my grandfather into the local shipyard where he spent all of his working life, making and repairing ship's engines.My grandmother went into domestic service, cleaning wealthy people's houses before getting married and spent the rest of her life cleaning her own house, cooking and bringing up her family.She died at 76, an old woman before her time.My grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep at 82.
I did not see my paternal grandmother very much, mostly because of distance and the fact my mother and her did not see eye to eye. She always sent us presents at birthdays and Christmas, and was by all accounts a formidable character.She died of pneumonia in her late 60s caused by her heavy smoking.
I hardly knew my paternal grandfather, as my grandmother and he had parted company when I was a toddler.I have only a very vague memory of him.He never contacted any of his children after he and my grandmother separated.

My maternal grandparents died when I was five. They lived in South Africa. My mother came to the UK after the war to be with my dad , they met during the war.
My paternal grandfather died when I was 6 months so never knew him . My dad said he wasn’t a very nice man .
My paternal granny lived with us from when I was 12. She knitted her own stockings and was always making me dolls clothes and knitting us jumpers. She did the gardening and helped mum with my sister , collecting her from school etc . She is 8 years younger than me and 4 years younger than my brother.. She died aged 94 despite very high blood pressured and was always told she had a “bad heart “ I think my mum had quite a tricky time with her sometimes but cared for her when she was dying.

i didn't know my maternal grandfather. He died in WW1. In WW2, my maternal grandmother's house was destroyed in the blitz and for my first 4 years she lived with us. I adored her. She is my still my style icon, my hero who faced life's vicissitudes, and for her they were many, with strength and endurance. Of Irish immigranr stock, she grew up in poverty but was stylish, self possessed, a feminist.

The saying of hers that rings down our family is .'I do not follow fashion, I set it' Said when someone expressed shock when she went out for the evening wearing not a hat, but what we now call a fascinator.

My paternal grandparents, I liked less. My paternal grandmother did not like my mother - and I was too like my mother. My father was one of 11 children and my grandmother always put her daughters children first. My grandfather loved us all, but was very distant. When we visited for the afternoon, he would not appear until tea time. However, he loved Murray mints and always had a jar with them in, in a cupboard and our biggest treat (at a time of sweet rationing) was when he went to his cupboard, got out the jar and gave us each a sweet.

Both grandparents on my paternal side died before I was born, my grandfather on the maternal side died when I was six, I remember he always wore a three piece suit with immaculately cleaned shoes and a hat, I can’t remember anything else. My grandmother on my mothers side died when I was eleven, I remember that she had a sewing machine and would make our clothes, she had been a seamstress all her working life, working in a corset factory for many years, and she made my mum’s beautiful wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, and her own outfit for the wedding.
Whenever she visited she brought myself and my sister a comic and sone sweets, but she wasn’t a cuddly affectionate granny, I remember her more as a rather stern faced grandmother who believed children should be seen and not heard. To be honest I was more than a little scared of her.

Mine were wonderful but had lived very hard lives and didn’t live as long as they should have done.

All my grandparents had died by the time I was 10. I can just remember my maternal grandmother but she was very ill and died when I was 5. Her husband was a lovely grandpa and my brother and I used to go and listen to “journey into space” on the radio in his room. He and granny lived with us.
My paternal granny died when my dad was a teenager. My paternal grandfather was in hospital a lot and I can remember going with my mum to visit him. I wasn’t allowed into the ward so had to sit in the corridor! I can still remember the hospital smell!

I knew all four of my grandparents, but my paternal grandmother had a stroke when I was very young, which affected her badly, so I did not know her as an able-bodied person. She couldn’t speak properly but we knew she loved us. My Grandad then worked from home part-time to enable him to look after her. I’ve only appreciated how unusual that was for the time as I’ve got older and I’m quite proud of him! He was a lovely man and good fun.

My maternal grandparents were separated during the war. They lived fairly close to us when I was young so we saw quite a lot of them. They seemed old - I think they were slightly older than my friends’ grandparents.

Both my grandmothers worked through necessity; one as a dressmaker and the other in a shop then a cafe - she had to earn her keep to survive.

My other gran I knew well and spent holidays at her house. Again widowed but at 50 she had to leave home and move to a little council house.She kept chickens and grew her own veg and did a part time job S money was short.She took me to work on her bike when I was a toddler. I don't know what my parents were doing but I spent a lot of time with her.She taught me to cook and name plants and animals on our walks.

One was widowed at 40 whilst expecting her 10th. The family had to move out of the house attached to his work and they moved to a smaller house. The older children had to leave school to help with money. When I knew her she was old and dressed in black and spent her time in bed or in an armchair.She reminded me of Queen Victoria and I don't remember ever talking to her.

Aw Blindnana crazyH

I only knew one of mine. She was quiet and rather sad. Understandably as her son my dad had died in an accident.
She taught us how to collect mussels, bake scones, sweep floors and iron clothes.
She read women's magazines, which my mum disapproved of, but was frumpy, according to my mum.
She liked to paint pictures of flowers and her best friend was an interesting woman called Cora Wilding. I later discovered that Cora had led a life full of adventure and achievement and her brother Tony won the men's singles at Wimbledon before the first world war.

Granny, who liked to be called Gaga, was born in 1882 and died in about 1960. I knew lots of Victorians.

Don't know where those last few words came from!

One gran was a milliner. She worked in London. She was mega skinny having had abdominal surgery when she was young ... heaven knows what they did or why but it was probably pretty crude in those times. She had one child ... my Mum. I never met the man who was her husband and my grandfather as he died when I was small. When I was about 4 she remarried a man who went on to put his head in the gas oven a year or so later. The knock on the door from the policeman one Christmas Eve is etched in my memory. When I was older she told me "His behaviour in bed was a disgrace for a man his age" .... oh dear ....
My happiest memory of her was the fact that she loved at the seaside and we spent our summers there.

The other granny lived in London in an Edwardian terraced house off Clapham Common. They let out one room to a single lady ... who terrified me! As did the gas geyser in the bathroom ... utterly terrifying! Gran was huge and busty and sliced bread under her arm .. I used to worry she might slice her boob off! She used to tell me tales of working as a housemaid, and of the days before the NHS. Grandad was the postman who used to visit the big house where she worked. He eventually worked in an office job for the post office.

I used to marvel that these women (as it was the grans who survived) had gone from the days of horse-drawn carriages to seeing men land on the moon via a box in the corner of their living room. And they survived 2 world wars!
My other grandma

My Paternal Grandmother died when I was a baby , her Husband lived to his mid 90s , he was tiny and cross , I was about 10 when he died
My Maternal Grandmother parents were lovely , Gran taught us card games , she loved a bet ! Granda was a cabinet maker and his workshop was so inviting with the smell of wood shavings , he made us wooden toys , dusting the war he churned out coffins for the Glasgow blitz , Gran was a great cook , she grew fruit bushes and made loads of jam

Post war I went on holidays with them , I really missed them Granda went first , Gran died in my bed , she had come to us for a holiday , but she was very frail at 83 , still playing cards and sending her bets to the bookies !

Never knew any GP.

All dead before I was old enough to know them.

I only knew my maternal grandmother- we called her ‘Blindnana’ for obvious reasons. Lovely lady 😘

My paternal grandfather died when my father was only 13 so I never knew him at all. His mother lived into her 90s and we used to visit her every Sunday. Her oldest and youngest daughters lived at home and looked after her. I don't think she ever left the house except for the time she had an operation. I always remember her sitting by the fire eating bread and milk.
I thought my mother's father was great fun. He used to buy me interesting books and toys. He died when I was 10 and my mother told me later that it was just as well as he used to beat her and would probably have hit me if I'd got to the argumentative age! Her mother was very straight laced and well dressed, but always spoiled the look with a fag stuck in her mouth. I think it was that that put me off smoking.

It was my paternal grandparents who were well to do.

All 4 grandparents were alive when I was born. My maternal grandparents were very well to do and had a lovely house. They came from upper middle class families and were slightly scary. Granny was very glamorous, wore fabulous jewellery, furs, expensive clothes and drove a sports car.

My maternal grandparents were resolutely working class. My nan worked in a Lancashire mill and brought the girls out on strike because working conditions were so awful.

My pop was an orphan from the age of 12 and helped bring up his siblings. He got an apprentiship on the railways and became chief electrical engineer of LMS. He loved me to bits and they were really welcoming.

Mine were mainly dead too.
Had a sweet Grandpa who lived until I was 12.