These are the only grandparents I remember. My grandmother was a little lady and always wore Grandma Shoes and an apron. She bought the "bestest" gifts for birthdays though. I know I got other gifts for birthdays, but for some reason, her gifts are the ones I still remember. What I feel bad about (now that I'm a grandparent) is that I didn't pay enough attention to them when I was growing up, and they died when I was a young adult.

My maternal grandfather was a big man too...I heard stories about him breaking his back more than once and recooperating from it. He farmed...
And he was a tease. He loved the grandkids...He always called me "Red"...although I don't have red hair...I'd always tell him..."I DON'T HAVE RED HAIR!!!"
He passed away with cancer the summer I was 6. Just a year before my mother passed on to be with him. I was never close to that grandmother. I always thought she was mean.
She passed away when I was in high school or soon after that.

I never really knew my dad's parents...I did get to meet his mother but never met his father. They didn't have much to do with my dad...I don't know why. She lived in the same town...I know my dad was a drinker but he was such a nice person. He had two sucessful brothers..they lived in the same town and never had anything to do with him either...So I have cousins I've never met.They probably still live here in town.

patti

In temperament I am much like my maternal grandmother. She was feisty, loved the outdoors and all living creatures. I spent my early childhood spring/summers with her up at a place she leased at the river every year.

I look just like my paternal grandmother. I didn't get to see her much since they lived further away. I feel bad about that because in the few pics I have of us the love shines through. You know how so many pics looked posed and somewhat solemn from back in the day. Not my Baba Elena. LOL I know she loved me with her heart. Unconditionally.

My mother's parents had to flee Russia during the revolution. They were fortunate to get out alive. Political connections allowed them to cross into China. My grandfather had to give up a law career and became a house painter. My grandmother went from having servants for everything to sewing.

My father's mother and step father came by way of Germany. They worked for a family for several years as housekeeper and butler to pay off their debt to their sponsor. My father was put into first grade as an 11 year old until he learned English. He did. Within a couple of months and was then put in his proper grade.

That's why I get so angry at all the handouts and special entitlements given out today. People used to assimilate because they had to. Now I see keeping to one's culture as a way of lifestyle and support.

I knew my grand parents. I grew up with my Great grandmothers(and grandfathers, and step GF) on my dad's side and his mother and dad. I had a small relationship with my mom's parents, although they lived 3000 miles away I saw them every few years, and I did get to know my Mom's grandfather on her dads side a little when I was young. His wife and my mom's other grandparents had all passed before I was born.

I have a picture in the garage, I'll have to find it and scan it..It's of me, my dad, his mom, her mom and I think might even have her mom..if not her sister.

I adored my paternal great grand parents! My great grandmas actually out lived all their husbands and my grand parents.
I was in early grade school when my great grandfather on my Dad's dads side passed away. Maybe first grade..I remember visiting him at his house while he was dying..I was soooo mad at my parents for keeping me at school during his funeral. They did come get me for the "party". By the time I was born, or shortly there around, he and my great GMa had divorced and she was remarried to Grandpa Fred. I spent lots of time with my grand parents..I was the first grand child but also...my youngest Aunt is only 10 months older than I am. So we were "playmates" as well. There are tons of crazy stories I could tell you about my grand parents...They both died to young! I remember my great grandfather on my Grandma's side. He lived in a "shack" on the family homestead. He was Greek..and didn't speak english all to well.(I think now as I'm older an understand things..he probably spoke quite well, just was old and ddin't care anymore.) He'd sit on a chair outside his door and "fuss" at my Aunt and I running about the yard. LOL
I was very young...My next memory is after he had passed, we went up to his cabin, and cleaned it out..I remember finding things that had my name on it. I have a bible somewhere that he wrote in to me.

I no longer have any of my grandparents around. I miss my last GGrandma to pass the most.. I loved her so much and was so so happy that she got to meet all the boys..Although Kamren was just a baby...so he doesn't remember her..But the others do.

My maternal grandmother (Irish) was a quiet, sad woman who never seemed to leave the kitchen. When everyone else was in the livingroom visiting or celebrating something, she was sitting in a little aluminum dinette chair staring into space. I would always run in and ask if I could sit on her lap and she would look down at her big belly and tell me there was no room.

My maternal grandfather (German) was a sign painter and merchant marine. He would travel around the world and bring me neat things. He was a very jolly guy.

My paternal grandfather (Spanish) I met only once that I can remember. He had remarried before I was born and lived on a boat in Puget Sound near Seattle. I've been told he was an accomplished Flamenco guitarist.

My paternal grandmother (Eskimo) was a stunningly beautiful woman with long, flowing hair that she wore up in a bun. I used to love to watch her take it down at night and comb it. It went to her waist. She was born in Alaska to Reindeer Princess Holulu Buliak and moved to Seattle when she was 15 for finishing school.

My paternal great-great grandmother, princess Holulu's mother (Eskimo/Russian) I never met but she is a historical figure in Alaska, known as Sinrock Mary, Queen Mary or Reindeer Queen. I grew up knowing her as Mary of White Mountain. Her real name was Mary Antisarlook.

About ten years ago I worked with two Alaska historians to pull together more info on her. The mother-in-law of one of the historians knew Mary and I got to talk to her. I will be meeting the other historian next Saturday at the start of the Iditarod race in Anchorage.

Below is a link to a small portion of a documentary film that was made on her life. They show this video on schools and museums.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinrock Mary documentary video

My grandparents met through a magazine called "The Lonely Hearts Club." My Grandmother's sister had started writing letters to a guy to fix Grandma up. That guy was actually my Grandfather's sister in Law. Apparently, the sister and sil wrote each other for a while and then my grandparents met and got married. My grandmother was 16 and my grandfather was 18. The marriage certificate says that my grandfather was 21. He had to lie about his age because his mother wasn't there to sign for him.

My grandfather only had a second or fourth grade education. He had a lot of intelligence and common sense, but wasn't educated. He was a very capable man. He loved to talk to people. People loved him. I didn't get to go to his or my grandmother's funeral, but the funeral director told the rest of the family that my grandparents had the most people he had ever seen show up to pay their respect.

My mom's parents were farmers in Iowa. They were of German descent. My grandfather was a jerk, but my grandmother was a hardworking woman with a very sweet demeaner. She had a hard life thanks to my grandfather. She always sent us kids a dollar on birthdays and Christmas. She came to visit at least once a year. All of my grandparents died when I couldn't travel due to pregnancies or newborn and little babies. I didn't get to go to her funeral either.

My maternal grandparents were both born and raised in Philadelphia.
They lived in a row house with a brownstone porch in front, in South Philadelphia. They bought it during the depression, when they were renting the house from a woman who hit hard times, and had to sell it.

My grandmother was known to everyone as "Aunt Doll" and loved by all.

My grandfather was an electrician, and in the 30's started an electrical contracting company with his brother. The business became very successful, but grandpop hated living in a suit and doing paperwork, so he sold out to his brother, and went back to what he loved..being an electrician. He worked on most of the larger construction projects in the city, including the airport, a bridge and many large city buildings downtown.
But, he still kept his hand in the business with his brother, and when Uncle Bill went on vacation or needed help on a contract...grandpop went into his closet, put on a suit and tie and became a businessman. He was a tall, thin, very elegant man...who just preferred to work with his hands. He always had union apprentices coming over to the house on weekends for help and advice.

They were two of the kindest, most down to earth people I have ever met.
I spent a lot of time with them. One thing I remember - when we went out to dinner they always had a martini before dinner....and I got to eat the olive !

I still miss them.

Great thread!

Jodi, how colorful. Maybe you'll see the "ghost herd" while you're there. (Or maybe you already have.)

My maternal grandmother (German/Austrian Lutheran) died of a heart attack in her early forties, quite a while before I was born. I'm told she was a lovely person, and very creative. I believe it, as her daughters were all creative.

My maternal grandfather (German Lutheran) owned a deli in New Jersey. I remember him a little, but not well. He, too, had a reputation as super nice person. I'm told he took my mom's death at age 38 very hard. She was his oldest daughter.

Some KTers have seen pictures of my paternal grandparents. I didn't know this grandfather (Belgian/German Jewish) at all, because he died (of a heart attack at age 61) before I was born. He was an opera singer who toured with a company that sang grand opera in English. He had a great following of fans, and I have newspaper clippings that report how ladies swooned in the aisles when he came on stage. (They must have all had aisle seats). :-)

My paternal grandmother (Scottish Presbyterian, later--briefly--a Catholic convert) was also an opera singer. She ran away from home at 16 to go on the stage, where she met the handsome baritone she married. I knew her very well, as she lived with us for most of the last ten years of her life.

When I was born, she announced she was too young to be a grandmother, so I was to call her Lucky. She was 70. I was an overweight child, but she always insisted I belonged on the stage. She was probably right, but I'm sure she was the only one who thought so at the time.

At my present age I realize how much like Lucky I turned out to be. She loved to get dressed and go somewhere--and then she couldn't wait to go home. That's me. I also inherited her curiosity and sense of mischief and adventure. I never would have run away from home at 16, but I understand what motivated her to try her hand at writing short stories (she got published), figure skating, learning French (she succeeded spectacularly), making pets out of her farm animals, and doing things like cooking strawberry jam in the sun. And I inherited some (not all) of her singing voice.

I hope I do not inherit the dementia she was afflicted with late in life. I suppose it was Alzheimer's. But she never forgot how to sing.

My paternal grandparents (I did not inherit my grandmother's waist!):

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Never knew them. Mom's parents died well before I was born and my father's parents lived 3000 miles away. I saw them maybe five or six days in my whole life.

Ditto for all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Frankly, I think my father was very foolish to move his wife and family 3000 miles away from both of their families.

Rose

My maternal grandparents were farmers in Iowa. My grandma came here from Germany alone at 16. After arriving in NY she took a train to Iowa where she had family. My grandfather was born in Iowa to German parents. When my mom was 16 her dad died from a long illness and my grandma sold the farm and moved to CA with her 4 children. I wasn't very close to her, she didn't want to be called grandma. She was very strong willed and my dad didn't get along with her.
My paternal grandpa was born in Iowa and moved to KS where he met my grandma who was from TX. This grandpa died when I was a year old. My mom always said he sure was proud of me since I was the only grandchild he knew. My grandma was nice most of the time. She died when I was in high school. She had had dementia for several years. What I remember most about her was that she would cook oatmeal for me and we would eat it with butter and sugar on it. I always laughed when she called my dad William and everyone else called him Bill.

alisande...I think your grandmother had a bigger waist than you think....it was just squeezed up to her shoulders....

just kidding....LOL

beautiful pictures...was that a dance costume or bull fighter clothes your grandfather had on???

patti

My paternal grandparents died before my Father got married. His Dad founded the Leavenworth Business College in Leavenworth Kansas. I have an envelope that he addressed and has the most beautiful flowing penmanship.

My maternal grandparents farmed all their life, first in Kansas and then in Mn. My grandmother was given up by her parents for adoption, though they kept her younger sister. She kept in contact with her biological parents though. My cousin, doing genealogical research, found pictures of her with her biological parents and her adoptive parents.

We lived for a year or so on the farm in Mn. with my grandparents. I remember helping my grandmother gather eggs and taking care of feeding and watering them when she had a chance to go away for a weekend, I was about 11 years old at the time.

I just found a photo of both sides of the family on my parents wedding day. Can you figure which is the Spanish/Eskimo side and which is the German/Irish side? LOL

Only one person in this photo is still alive and that's my uncle Bobby (Robert Velez). I love him dearly.

Ruthie my grandfather (pop) used to drink tea that way!

2 of my grandparents passed away before I was born. My mom was the youngest in her family so by the time she got married and had kids her parents were getting old. Her mom and my dad's dad died before I was born.

Dad's mom died when I was in grade 2. I don't have many memories of her, other than the fact she was in a nursing home and we'd go to visit her in the summer. It was a big old building with lots of steps at the front and we'd have to walk past mentally handicapped people on the way in and I was afraid of them. Dad would make me kiss grandmother hello and goodbye but I never wanted to, I was afraid of her too! Sad that I don't have good memories of her.

Mom's dad died when I was in kindergarten I think. He married shortly after his wife (mom's mom, my grammy) died, less than a year. A lot of his children didn't like that. Pop was tall and always seemed to be laughing. He would give us money whenever he came to visit. That's really my only memory of him.

My paternal grandfather was a railroad conductor in Chicago. My paternal grandmother was a homemaker. Both of them were of Irish descent.

My maternal grandmother was our delight. She wore her hair in a bun. It was white and went to her waist. Her father had been an architect, and he taught her how to design homes, which she did a little while living at home. She met the new young minister in town and married him. She was a wonderful homemaker and mother and grandmother. She knew how to get by on very little money, a necessity as the wife of a minister of small southern Illinois churches. She was of German descent, and he was of English descent.

My grandfathers died before I was born, and the only time I remember meeting my father's mother, she was suffering from dementia. My mother's mother was the epitome of a loving grandmother. Her cinnamon yeast rolls were to die for! She was so sweet and so wise.

The only one I knew was my Mom's mother who lived to be 86. She was a very tough though genteel woman orginally from Canada. Her parents were from Ireland. She scared us kids and we dare not misbehave in her prescence. I guess she had to be due to the fact she lost her husband early in the marriage. It was in 1924 when my Mom was 6 YO. My grandmother had 4 children, the youngest being 2. She went to work as an upstairs maid in Boston then later worked in the factories till she was supported by her grown children. That was a hard thing for a woman to do back then. Here is her weding picture.
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My Dad's father died when I was 6 months old. He was in his late 60's or early 70's. I heard lots of stories about him later and none of them were good. He was an alcoholic and would disappear for weeks leaving the older children to take care of the younger. He buried 3 wives, 2 who died in childbirth. There was 13 kids. He came from Quebec and sneaked across the border back in the early 1900's. He worked as a lumberjack and other various day labor type jobs. He never spoke English but only French. My Dad's mother died when he was 6. He never said anything about her.
Clare

Remember my paternal grandfather always gave GK's silver dollars for Christmas.
And my maternal grandmother, I remember picking blackberries by the creek and smushing them with sugar and milk for a hot summer afternoon snack.

My grandfather (on my mother's side) was born duing the Civil War in southern MO. Great grandfather had a tough time keeping the family together and avoiding the raids.

After the Civil War, both g-grandfather and grandfather patented land in Arkansas on a long ridge called Boston Mountain. G-grandfather had married for the third time - his other wives had died, and the 3rd one died in Arkansas one winter from pneumonia. Soon after, Grandfather entered Oklahoma, bringing g-grandfather with him. Grandfather had just missed the largest land rushes. Oklahoma was seen as the 'promised land' for a farmer who had been breaking his ploughs on Arkansas rocks. They soon found that the promise was very hard work and little pay for a farmer. For a period of 10 years, grandfather rented and share cropped land. Grandfather saw the oil boom arrive in Oklahoma and at last he had saved enough money and got a chance to buy his own farm of 80 acres, but it was after all but one of his children had left home, most by marriage. Amazingly, that original farmhouse and farm remains in the family today.

The original house had a dirt floor kitchen, and I have a flash of memory about it. I was very young and mother had returned for a Christmas visit with me, a toddler, in tow. Mother had told me not to run in the house - but I did hurry too much one day, the day my uncle was cleaning the ashes out of the wood burning cook stove. I had to see. I rushed through the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. There was about a 12 to 16 inch drop to the dirt floor. A curtain of beads hang in the doorway. I zipped through the doorway and stepped onto nothingness plunging headlong into the kitchen and jamming both hands into the pan of hot ashes and coals. Both hands were badly burned. (That must have been why I remembered that bit from my early childhood. I couldn't have been more than 4 yrs old and I don't have any other memories from that period.) One of my aunts treated my hands each day as gently as she could. She used a chicken feather to apply a home medication to keep my fingers from sticking together (It was chicken fat). It worked. Had no lasting scars.

In later years, one of my aunts brought grandfather to our house one summer for a visit. He was 83 yr old at the time. He and I went pan fishing in a nearby river with me acting like a grownup guide - I knew where the good fishing holes were and where each species of fish hung out.

Grandfather had developed skin cancer from his long years of toiling in the sun. He always wore a hat, but the skin got exposed anyway. One cancer was dangerously close to his eyelid. The University of Oklahoma Hospital tried an experimental radiation treatment (It was experimental at that time). Radioactive gas was sealed in glass ampules (needles) and inserted into the cancerous area. These were worn for a few days and then removed. It must have worked. It slowed the progress of the cancer to the extent that he did not die of it. He did have skin cancers to the end of his life, but His cause of death was old age of 98 years.

I saw him one more time about the year before he passed away. He was very feeble and had to be told when to get up to eat. I was saddened to see such a fine man reduced in stature in his final hour, dependent on his youngest son. He had been an independent sort and breathed honesty. He instilled good values to his children. He gave no quarter in discipline, but strongly believed in fair play. He was one of the last farmers to till with mules.

My grandfather use to drink coffee like that too!And he ate biscuits and syrup the same way.He was tall,6 ft 4,and skinny and my grandmother was short,about 5 ft 2,and chubby.He was of Irish decent and she was Black Dutch. They were originally from Alabama and came to TX in a covered wagon when my mother was a little girl.They had 6 girls and grandmother about died with the last one that weighed 13 pounds.He had a son whose mother died shortly after he was born when he married Grandmother.My grand dad smoked a pipe and I will always remember the sweet smell of his pipe tobacco.There were huge elm trees surrounding their front yard and he would lay down on the hard ground on his back with his straw hat over his face and take an afternoon nap.He had the patience of Job and would let my cousin and I comb and "style" his hair for hours.He died of pancreatic cancer when I was 14.
I can see my grandmother in the kitchen with her apron on,always doing something.She always wore an apron.I remember a couple of times she left the house for church with her apron on.LOL She always wore a dress and there would be a needle or straight pin stuck in the lapel or neckline.She had a heart attack walking across the street to her neighbor's house about 6 weeks before my wedding and was hospitalized.She was doing well and planning to get out in time for the wedding.Mother sat with her at night and worked on my wedding dress in the hospital,then about 2 weeks before the wedding she had another heart attack and passed away.
I never knew my grandfather on my father's side but my grandma was a tough bird.She raised 6 kids too,3 boys and 3 girls and all the boys were handfuls.She also raised my half sister after her mother abandoned her.She had a rough life and always told the story about sleeping with a butcher knife under her pillow.The kids called her "Butcher knife Liz".Never did know why she needed to protect herself with the butcher knife.She always made bread pudding when I would come to see her because I loved it so much,and she made the best.She died in 1970.

I just love hearing all these stories about grandparents and the history that goes with it. I really love looking at the pictures.

I didn't know either of my grandparents. My maternal grandfather was apparently a "ladies man", and there is a family scandal about him. I think he fathered a child with his wife's sister, and that child (now a grown woman) looks exactly like my mother. He died before I was born. My maternal grandmother was a cranky lady. She was cranky with everyone, and she especially did not like my sister. She did like me for some reason, though, and she was very good to me. She lived a pretty impoverished life until she married her second husband, who was fairly prosperous. Unfortunately, he also caused a family scandal- of a much more serious sort. Anyway, grandma was from North Carolina and then lived in Maryland for several years. She briefly lived in Niagara Falls, NY, then went home to North Carolina for her final years. She was famous for cooking, baking and preserving. Whenever she came up to Canada, we would all go to market for produce and then spend the day in the kitchen processing and preserving it. I loved doing that.

My paternal grandfather was a farmer, and a Justice of the Peace. He died before I was born also, actually when he own kids were young. My paternal grandmother seemed cranky to me too, but I know that she had a very hard life. She managed the farm (in New Brunswick), with her young sons for as long as she could. My dad says that she was always working, or was always busy. I know she used to knit all the time, and at Christmas we would always get a box of knitted scarves, hats and mittens. She would also send maple candy.

Because our grandparents did not live close by, a older couple who lived in town and befriended our mother "adopted" us as their grandchildren. Otto was from Germany, and Hettie was from England, but we called them grandma and grandpa. We spend many Sundays having dinner with them, they would come and play cards or we would go to their place. They always gave us a dime for penny candy, and every now and then we would get a quarter! They had both been cooks on the boats (Upper Lakes Shipping) and made wonderful meals, although I'm still upset about my rabbit (don't ask).

My maternal grandparents had 18 kids...one at a time. The youngest is two months younger than me. When I was a kid, he was in my class and no one would believe he was my uncle.

They had no running water and no electricity. I loved hearing that windmill turning. Grandpa used work horses for field work. Mom said when she was young Grandma used to work the fields and make 12 loaves of bread every other day.

Breakfast was a slice of bread with coffee poured over it. They had watered down milk, so there would be more milk to sell. I don't think one of them could stand milk as adults.

Grandpa had a terrible temper. We lived about 1/2 mile from them when I was 8. One day I told Mom I could hear a strange noise, she went out and listened and said "oh, that's just Grandpa yelling". But Mom said that during her childhood, when he had a bunch of mouths to feed, if he had a quarter, he would use it for a soup bone. He did his best to feed his kids.

In 1972, they sold the farm and moved to a small town. The house had electricity and running water, even though no hot water. My Grandma would flip the light switches 20 times a day. On the farm, they had a washing machine with a gas powered motor (you can't imagine how loud that was inside!) and a battery-operated tv, so they could watch I Love Lucy and wrestling. When Grandpa died he had about 90 grandkids and knew everyone's name and their birthdays. Grandma wasn't as lucky, she spent the last years with my folks and then in a nursing home, not recognizing her own family and living back in her childhood. Hopefully, it wasn't so bad for her back there, no one yelling at her all the time.

My paternal grandparents had 10 kids. My grand father was not a good person. He used to make my dad go with him when Dad was a kid (as his alibi). Then he would go "visit" his lady friends while Dad stayed n the car. Grandpa gave Grandma an STD when she was pregnant and one of the daughters had blind spells when she was a kid that they thought was caused by that.
My grandfather was part American Indian and the few times we did see him, he would try and teach us some Indian words.
They finally got divorced and Grandpa moved to CA, and I guess, helped develop El Cajon (I don't know if that part's true).

Years later, after Grandma was completely blind, they got back together and he took care of her until his death.

JoanMN/FL

I have no memories of my paternal Grandparents. That Grandma, had a total of 13 children to two husbands. The first husband would have been the brother of her second husband. The story is that her first husband and the 4 children she had to him died in a flu epidemic. That would have been in the late 1800's. To my Grandfather she had 9 children. She passed away several years before I was born. That Grandfather passed away when I was just 3.

My Mom's father supported his family (11 children) by mining coal in his own private coal mine. The mouth of the mine was about 200 feet from the 5 bedroom house they lived in. There was a railroad siding that went right up to it. He made a good living as Grandma had someone that came in daily to help with the chores and all those kids. Grandpa died when I was 6. I remember his as a tall skinny man who always laughed. Grandma live to age 80. There was always home made cookies in the cookie jar right up till the day she had the stroke that took her. She spent most of her "grandmother" days at a sewing machine or doing embroidery, whatever would keep her hands busy. When you got married, as grandkids, we recieved embroidered pillow cases, a crocheted doily or 2, a couple aprons, and always a sunbonnet, all made by her busy hands. Every Grandchild, and many of the greats when they reached about age 6 were given a doll (even the boys) that she made. They were cloth with a complete hand made outfit. I remember mine had on socks with pale yellow crocheted trim and black shoes. Her slip and bloomers had that yellow trim too. Her dress was green and white checked with yellow lace at the collar and cufs. She also had a Navy blue coat. Every grandchilds doll was a little different and had yarn hair to match it's owner. Grandma was much loved and respected by her family. I will never stop missing her.

My maternal DGM was a go getter & hard worker. She knew how to squeeze a dime out of a nickel! Ambitious, humerous & great cook!
After they sold their farm where they raised their 4 kids, she was the 1st person to own a motel in her small rural town. She took in borders n their upstairs of their home as well as had 6 units down behind the house edging a babbling brook.
She'd cook meals for her borders, loved to gamble on the doggies, traveled anywhere & everywhere, addicted to her weekly Canasta parties/luncheons & ate the turkey neck at Thanksgiving so her family got the 'good stuff'!
Gramps worked for the Highway Dept until late in years.He ate is favorite veggie-peas, off of his dinner knife! He passed in the late 50's from 'old age'. Grandma passed in the late 60's.
MY paternal grandparents were also very busy people. They had 6 children & Gramps worked on the railroad and was one of the original members of our town's 1st Fire Company. He passed at 81 yrs old...very quiet, meek man.
"Frankie' as my DGM was called...was an avid Yankee fan,in fact-back in her day-good Baptists did NOT watch tv on Sundays. But Frankie would sit by her window so she could see if anyone was coming to visit & immediately turn off the game so noone would know! LOL!
She made extra money to feed her kids, by baking cakes. I have a pic of her dining room table one Easter Eve, with 34 decorated Lamb cakes that she had orders for-a tradition amongst the locals..to have a 'Frankie Lamb Cake' for Easter dinner dessert! She passed away at 95 yrs old.

What a great thread.

My maternal grandparents farmed in this area (southeast Minn.) all their lives. They lived right across the road from me growing up and I was blessed to be able to see them almost everyday. Grandma was a typical farm wife. I never saw her in anything but a dress and an apron unless she was going to help out in the fields. She was a fantastic cook and you couldn't leave her house unless you had something to eat first.
My maternal grandfather was a charcter. He would brag that he got a licking everyday in school. One of his favorite tricks was to put a 22 shell in a scrap of paper and throw it into the pot-bellied stove in the one room school house. He loved fire. His solution to most any problem was: Burn it! When my brother or I have a camp fire we joke about how to build a good fire is in our DNA.
My maternal grandfather died in March of 1992. If he had lived until August they would have been married 70 years.
My paternal grandparents grew up in Germany and moved to the USA in 1913. They never learned very much English. My Dad didn't learn English until he started school. I wish I could've communicated with them better. It would have been so interesting to here their stories about the "old country".

Ron

I never knew either GF and always have regreted that. They died before I was born. One GM was quite a lady and I have several of her things which I really value. She had a colorful family history and made the best yeast rolls ever. She was married to a train engineer. My other GM had raised 8 children and had been married to a farmer, so they eeked out a living. This one lived to see me have 2 of my children. I have a picture of her holding my second child, and I treasure that. I have 8 grands and I hope they remember me fondly and think I was loving and generous with them.

My parents were both the youngest in their families and they married late for their generation (my mom was in her late 20s and my dad in his early 30s). I was the youngest in my family so by the time I was born only one of my grandparents, my maternal grandmother, was still alive. She died when I was 3 or 4. My only memory of her is she got meals on wheels (or maybe it was just a TV dinner) and she shared it with me but she told me that the dessert was 'bad' and I shouldn't eat it. Then she ate it! LOL. What a silly memory to have but at least I have the one.

I remember waiting in the stairwell of the hospital as she died. Kids weren't allowed in the hospital but we were brought in for one last visit. It was the early 70s and she was in one of those large multi-patient wards (it seemed like a big room but I was so little maybe it wasn't).

I remember her funeral too.

My paternal grandfather was electrocuted in the coal mines when my dad was 16. My dad's older brother was on his honeymoon and back then communication was difficult. He was supposed to stop at my dad's sister's house in NJ so they left a message there for him to return home ASAP. He saw the black funeral bunting on the house when he got home and drove straight into the garage door. He thought it was his mother who died. She died later from liver disease, I think. I don't know very much about my paternal grandparents since my dad hasn't talked about them much. I only heard that story about my uncle a couple of years ago.

My maternal grandfather eventually died of black lung anyway but he gave up the mines after having a close call and was out of work for a while. The family went on 'the relief'. He eventually got work in a gov't program but I get the impression from my mom that she didn't consider him much of a provider. He was my GM's second husband, the mother of all but one of her 7 children. For the longest time I thought she lost her first husband in WWI but it was the flu epidemic that got him.

This is a wonderful thread. It is wonderful to hear how much you know of your family and its past. Cherish is always.

I will post my memories a bit later, as I have just heard company come in the door...

Trin

Super thread!

I had 3 sets of Grandparents since my Mom's parents were divorced and remarried.

My paternal grandparents lived on a farm. I remember there were no doors, just curtains hung over the doorways. No indoor baathroom either, but an outside shower of some sort and an outhouse. They had a few horses.. this one 'Prince' was my favorite (me, my brother and Dad).

My maternal grandparents divorced and remarried. Mom's Dad married a nice lady. My DB and I would call them our "rich" grandparents.. they had a clubhouse on the river as well as a nice house in the city. We always got nice gifts from them for the holidays. I took care of them for awhile before they had to go into the nursing home. Mom's Mom lived in a small brick cottage in St. Louis with her second husband. The cottage always smelled of ripe bananas. They had one of those old metal gliders on the front porch and a archway full of red roses grew on the side of the house. That Grandpa always called me Liddie... I didn't like it when anyone else called me that, but for some reason it was okay when he did.

I know very little. Mom was born here in Philadelphia but her Mom died shortly thereafter; not in childbirth but from something else (pneumonia?). Mom and her older brother & sister - all under 7 - now had only my fraternal Grandfather to take care of them and work in an iron mill. One of Mom's aunts came over by boat and took the three of them back to Ireland to be raised there. Mom's dad did keep in touch with them and on one of Mom's visits gave each of them a little animal he made of iron - Mom got a frog. It's still in Dad's house used as a doorstop.

Mom & Dad married in 1949 and moved from Ireland to the USA because that's where Mom wanted to live & raise a family. I belive her Dad was gone by this time. I've always wondered how you could pack up and move 3,000 miles away from everybody you loved & grew up with to make a life in what was in effect a foreign country, for my Dad at least.

My fraternal grandfather died in Ireland long before Mom & Dad borrowed on their life insurance to take me, my two brothers & my sister there for a visit in 1966. In fact Dad's Mom had remarried & buried husband #2 by then. So she was the only grandparent I ever actually met. Dad is 5'2", Mom was 5'1" and Grandmother was a couple inches shy of 5'. As a 6' 16 year old they thought I was a giant!!!

my maternal grandparents were both raised in the midwest and were from farming families. they did eventually lose the farm (depression) and grandpa went to work for the railway, and was gone a lot. grandma after she quit her war job (a "rosie") worked for jc penney in arkansas city ks... she quit to help my uncle, and ran his dairy queen...grandpa had various jobs...at one point (at the urging of my mother, big mistake) they divorced, but remarried. they raised 5 children, and lost an adult son before they passed...

i have 11 other cousins, and we have 22 children...

there isn't a day i don't miss them, and they both passed in the 60's. i'm so glad i was able to spend several summers with them...

my dad's parents had passed before i was born..one disadvanage of having an older father (he was 46 when i was born) grandfater was a painter, grandmother stayed home..they were also midwesterners but lived in cleveland oh areas...

I only knew my grandparents on my father's side. They lived next door to us...but we didn't visit. My mother and grandmother, hated each other. My father wasn't too crazy about his mother either. From everything I have ever been told, she was a b*tch on wheels.

Her name was Caroline, but my mother called her T'Other me.
She used to say, "There's the good me, the bad me, and the t'other me."

She was old and skinny and wore her hair tied up in a head rag. She dipped snuff on a stick with a little rag tied around it. Her husband, Grandpa, was more easy going. He lost a leg in an accident and had a wooden leg. He often sat on the porch and when I would walk by, he would say "Apple sauce and chop chop chili. I'm thinking about my Uncle Willie."

That was in reference to an old black man who used to come visit us, and my mother had me call him Uncle Will. His wife, I called Aunt Yola.

Everyone talked about how mean grandma was...and I never had any warm, fuzzy feelings about her. One time my cousins were at her house, and I wanted to go over and play. When it was lunch time, she told me to go home to eat. She didn't have enough to "go around". Believe me, she had enough....she was just mean.

When I came back, after eating, I had left my stick horse there, and she was burning it. I tried to pull it out of the fire, and she ran at me with her cane and my cousins said, "Git her granny!!" Sweet, huh?

Well, both my cousins, who thought they were very high fallutin', and always talked down to me...loved horses. As I did. When grandma died...a year or so after grandpa...the house was sold and divided among my father and his two sisters. With my father's share, a little of the money went to buy my first horse.

I went on to raise horses. One cousin married about 5 times and had twice that many kids...in and out of trouble all the time. The other one, became a total alcoholic. I owned some of the best bred quarter horses around. (Get her granny!!) Ha ha ha!!!!

What a great thread!

I only knew my maternal grandparents. Every year we would go on a 2 week vacation to see them. We were city dwellers and, though my grandparents lived "in town", I was always amazed at the gardens they had. There was the veggie garden~about an acre in size, and an iris garden~also an acre in size.

The one thing I will always remember about them was their "sharing". They always shared chocolate covered nuts. Grandpa didn't like the nuts, so he sucked the chocolate off and gave Grandma the nuts, she didn't like the chocolate!

Here is a picture of three generations. It was taken, probably, in the late 1970's, as it doesn't look like I had gained any weight yet.

Tami, Ollie (my grandmother) Charlotte (my mother)
Here is DD, PerfectPets, aka Amber. She makes the fourth generation. Someplace, I should have a picture of her with my grandmother.

I love this thread and all the stories you all shared...Thank you all.

I, too, have loved reading everyone's post. My maternal grandfather died before I was born, but I've heard a lot of stories about his dry wit and easy going personality. He and my grandmother raised 10 kids and my mom said one of his favorite lines was, "Children, do do right!" LOL My maternal grandmother died the year I was a senior in high school and I loved her dearly. I "pilfered" through her purse everytime I was around her (as my mom would say). She never cared, just kept good stuff in there for me to eat! LOL She was a good woman. She had a great sense of humor and loved flowers, her cats and her chickens. I see my mom becoming more like her everyday.

My paternal grandfather died the year I was in the first grade. He was a tall, gentle and quiet man. He also had a dry sense of humor. He fell from the barnloft one time with an old felt hat full of eggs. He said, "It's a wonder I hadn't broken a hip, but at at least, I didn't break any of the eggs!" LOL He raised ten sons and they all grew up with a great deal of love and respect for him. Daddy said he never said a word against anyone but would just say, "Well, they're just not our kind of people." (That's when the boys were full of stories about who did what and didn't he think it was awful, etc.?) My maternal grandmother was a little, short, chubby woman. She had long, long hair and Grandpa and I used to brush it all out. I made her a ponytail one day and she laughed and said, "Now, that's just what I need - a PONY TAIL!" LOL Grandpa gave me a piece of hay twine to tie it with! LOL
She passed away when I was 15. She cooked on a wood cook stove and whistled all the time she worked. She used to make me homemade icecream in a metal icecube tray and it was so creamy and so sweet and so good!

The three that I knew, I loved tremendously. They were good people and great grandparents to all of us.

Both sets of grandparents came from Ireland. My greandfathers died before I was born. My fathers mother
lived with us. We called her nana. She had long white
hair that she wore in a bun. I have fond memories of her.
My mother's mother I remember as being mean.

The grandparent I knew best was my maternal grandmother, Delia. She married a man named David, who turned out to be a drunk and womanizer. Many times, he would drink away his paycheck, leaving almost nothing to feed the three kids. (I still remember my mother saying, "We had eggs and butter. They must have been cheap ...")

One pay day, my grandfather came home to change before a night of carousing. My grandmother was cooking, and when he came in, she asked him for his paycheck. He refused. Whereupon she calmly picked up the pan of frying potatoes in front of her and backed him into a corner, threatening him with a faceful of hot grease if he didn't give her the money.

He did. They divorced soon after. And Grandma was much, much happier.:)

I was blessed to have known my grandparents on both sides, and I could write a book about how great and wonderful they all were, but my best memories are about my great grandmother. Every weekend some of her grand kids stayed at her house. She had 58 grandkids, 126 great grandkids and 27 great great grand kids when she passed away at the still young age of 94. She didn't have electricity at her house or indoor plumbing. Going to her house was like going camping only better, because she was there to share in all our fun. I remember that she would make us pancakes for breakfast and make syrup from sugar and water boiled on her wood burning cook stove. She didn't eat pancakes, every morning her breakfast was the same, two fried eggs (fresh from her own chickens) homemade biscuits and stewed prunes. For dinner, fried chicken, her own chickens. She would go out in the yard and just grab a chicken by the head and swing it around and break its neck, within about 30 minutes she would have that chicken gutted, plucked and cut up ready to fry. She would fry that chicken and make homemade biscuits and gravy and corn on the cob from her own gardens and sliced fresh tomatoes. Best meals I have ever had.
Always at Christmas all of her grands, be it grand, great or great great, would get a gift from her. Usually a quarter or a pair of socks, depending on the age. The only thing I had left that she had gotten me through the years was a hankerchief, beautiful white with a flower embroidered on it. You could get them at the Dollar Store then in a pack of four for a dollar, you didn't get a whole pack just the one, we always thought that was so funny and even now all these years later when the family is together we all talk about the things Grandma Tivy use to give us for Christmas. My DD took my hankerchief to show in tell when she was in 3rd grade, she lost it and just cried and cried. I told her that the hankerchief didn't mean that much but the memory was worth a fortune and as long as she didn't lose my memmory of it everything would be fine. She gets it now. At Christmas when the family was together and the talk came around to Grandma, my DD pulled me aside and she said she still had my memory of my hankerchief and with tears in my eyes I told her that I still had them too.
My great grandmothers name was Octavia, I was grown before I ever knew that, to us she was always Grandma Tivy.

I almost forgot the most important thing. Everybody that came through my Grandma Tivy's door got a hug and a kiss, didn't matter if she knew you or not. Sometimes we would take friends from school with us to spend the night and they got a kiss just like the rest of us. I guess when you have that many grands what's another one or two.

I was fortunate enough to know all 4 of my grandparents. They lived close enough to us, especially my mother's parents, that we saw them quite frequently.

My father's parents lived in Harbour Grace, about an hour's drive from here now that they've put in the new roads.. When I was young, it was several hours' drive.
My grandfather, Reuben Taylor Parsons, was born in Harbour Grace in 1879 and died in 1968. He was a shopkeeper (they lived above the shop), an undertaker and coffin maker, a furniture maker, and a photographer. His love was photography but it didn't put food on the table, hence the other jobs. He took the pictures of the early cross Atlantic flights and pilots out of Harbour Grace, especially Amelia Earhart. He was appointed as Sergeant at Arms of the Newfoundland legislature in 1924 ( his father was the member of the legislature for Harbour Grace)and served in that capacity for 4 years. I don't think that he ever came to the city after that - I don't remember him ever being in our house.

My father's mother, Gertrude Lauretta Muriel (Churchill) Parsons was born in Topsail in 1882 and she died in 1981. She was a tiny woman but she was The Boss in her home. When she shook her finger, she meant business! She had 6 children but the 3 girls died before they were two years old. She was a voracious reader and always encouraged her children and grandchildren to read as well.

My mother's parents were in my life more when I was young because they lived here in the city. When I was 4 they moved to Corner Brook where my grandfather was the sales manager for a cement plant. I spent every summer of my life with them from the time I was 5 until I was 16.

My mother's father, Wallace John Richards, was born in 1900 and died in 1967. His father came over from England to work at the cable station in Heart's Content and went back to England with the rest of his family and my grandfather, who was 22 at the time, stayed here to marry. So all of his family was in England. My grandfather loved to sing and enjoyed a "swallow" or two - or three... or four.... - he was always ready for a party. I remember he was visiting us when I was 11 and asked if I would like to go back with him. In 3 hours I was on my first plane ride to Deer Lake - totally spur of the moment.

My grandmother, Nina Marguerite (Taylor) Richards, was a woman of infinite patience (see paragraph above!). She was born in Carbonear in 1900 and died in 1988. She always told me I was her favourite but all grandchildren were treated exactly the same. She was an excellent cook and always had treats on hand for us and any visitor who happened to knock on her door. It practically destroyed her when my mother died - they were very close.

I developed a great interest in family history about 10 years ago and I often wish that I could talk to my grandparents again and find out their parents and grandparents.

This is probably information overload but you asked.....

I did not really know my father's parents since they lived in Germany and we only visited once when I was six. My father came to the United States in 1914. He went to work for a lumber company and settled in Ohio where he met my mother. They were married in 1919. My maternal grandparents also came from Germany but had been in the United States for many years. Their first chikd was born in 1893. My grandfather was a teacher. He taught German until the United States entered World War I when they stopped teaching German in schools. After that he and my grandmother opened a deli and my grandmother did a lot of cooking for the store. When my parents moved to New York during the 1920's, they joined us. My parents bought a house and they came to live with us. My grandfather had a big garden and kept us supplied with fresh vegetavles. My mother was a teacher also. I remember them fondly. They were wonderful people.

I only got to meet one of my Grandparents, my maternal grandmother. We lived with her in her house until she died of cancer, on her 77th birthday, when I was about ten. She had been widowed twice. Her first husband died of Spanish Flu in 1918, the second died of complications from diabetes when my mother was about nine years old. To keep her house and stay afloat, Grandma made her house into a rooming house and took in boarders. There was a big hospital nearby, most of the boarders were interns, doctors and nurses. After Mom and Dad got married, they continued living with Grandma. Some boarders remained. When I was a little girl, there was still one man living there, Mr. Dingle. He moved out when my younger brother was born and we needed his bedroom. As I said, she passed away on her 77th birthday. I still miss her.

My Grandfather was called to serve in WWI. Shortly before he was to ship out with his company, he came down with the spanish flu (which killed millions world wide) and he nearly died. The entire military company he was attached to died when the ship sunk in the middle of the Atlantic a few weeks later.

He nearly died twice during a short period of time! He did go on to serve honorably and survived to make my mother, who in turn, made me ;)

Another memory. My grandmother was an excitable person who would get in a uproar about something or nothing and start in on him and go on for an hour or more, wandering all over the house, ranting and ranting.

In his elderly years, he would simply turn off his hearing aid. I thought that was BRILLIANT.

Great ones.........they loved me sooo much....My gf had alchol problems but still was super to me...gramma ahhhh she was super my best friend taught me to bake and to garden....I can't wait to be with them both again....Stacy

What wonderful stories. I also remember that during World War I my mother lost her citizenship when she married my father. It was later returned to her. I also remember that some close friends of my grandparents were Japanese. They belonged to the same Lutheran church in New York. They were supposed to be taken to an internment camp but the whole congregation rallied t their support and they were allowed to stay. Their son became a famous architecht but had to change his name from Yamada to York.

Here's a story about my husband's grandparents. His grandfather came from Italy early in the 20th century, leaving behind his wife and three children (including MIL, my husband's mother). He landed in New York and set up housekeeping on the Lower East Side with a second "wife". Yes, he was a bigamist! Then wife Number One came over with the kiddies and he stayed with her. The second wife was then abandoned, there were stories they had children, no one knows for sure. So there's a dead end in hubby's family tree! My husband knew all four of his Grandparents, his two Grandmotheres were still alive when we got married, but both were living in old folks homes. We attended both his Grandmothers funerals.

On my dad's side-

Abuela Manuela was way over 6 feet.... her husband, Abuelo Manuel, was just about 5 feet! His feet would dangle from most chairs he sat in! Notice the resemblance in their names... I never did meet them as we left Cuba in the early 60's and they stayed behind. They had 6 boys and 1 girl.

It is amazing how many of the stories resemble each other. How so many came from Germany and England. I did know all 5 (yes 5--one a step) grandparents and really loved each of them. They always treated me great but treated my brother the same but my Mom spoiled him so much they would always "advise" Mom what she was doing wrong which really upset her. I did get a chance to spend several summers on the ranch with one set and would have lived with them if I could. Now I wish I had set down more with my Dad and learned about his side of the family. I would love to trace his side back, but with a very common last name it is hard. I just know somewhere we are related to Stonewall Jackson. My GM married 3 times but I just found that out after she passed away. My Mom's side family history has been traced back to England to the 1500's thru my cousins. They really have spend time and money to do so. Lots of relatives from MO, TX etc I would like to trace.

My father's father was a railroad conductor in the Chicago area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When we kids pooh-poohed that idea in themid century era of the jet plane, Dad reminded us of how a railroad conductor was perceived at the turn of the century. He was like today's jet pilot for his era. Hmmmmm, had not thought of that.

He was the first generation to grow up in this country from Ireland, though he may have been born there and come over as a child.

An great, great and maybe more grandfather came over from Ireland on his own ship, sold it, and bought part of what is today the Chicago Loop. It was swampland. He sold it for fifty cents an acre. Our family was not known for great business acumen!

I remember my Grandparents very well.

Mom's parents died in the early 1980s when I was a teenager.

This is Grandma on the left, and Grandpa beside her. The guy in the red plaid is my Dad, and the woman in the pink is Dad's Mom.

I loved Mom's parents with all my heart. Grandpa was born in 1904, IIRC, in an isolated village in Pennsylvania that had picked up and moved from Germany in the early 1800s. He still spoke German in the home and at school as a child.

Grandma was born in 1906. She was walking across the bridge in a rainstorm one day when Grandpa offered her a ride. They were married something like 2 months later, and were married for just over 50 years when Grandma died.

My Dad's parents died in 1996 (Grandpa) and 2004 (Grandma).

This is them with my Aunt on the left and my Dad, probably about 1937 or 1938. I LOVE the clothes the men wore back then.

My Grandfather was something of an SOB, and my Grandmother could be a real B, too, but I loved them, and I miss them.

For all their personality flaws, Grandpa's philandering, and Grandma's nagging, they were married for 65 years.