What Do You Know About Your Great Grandparents?

Because as I tell people, it really is sad walking thru an old cemetery. There are literally people there long forgotten.

Fortunately, I do know a lot about my great grandparents.

My father's paternal grandparents had a mixed marriage. One was Catholic, and one was Lutheran. But they were very much in love. So they allowed the marriage (which was rare at the time), with the stipulation that their children (Grandpa and Uncle Bus) would be raised Roman Catholic.


My great grandfather worked for a very benevolent rich man, named Mr. Pope as chauffeur. He had to carry a revolver, because kidnappings of rich children were not uncommon then. Finally Great Grandpa came down with colon cancer. Mr. Pope built a small shack on his property for Great Grandpa to convalesce in. Reportedly, probably around this time, even after he lost his license, my great grandpa, a typical German man, still had to have his beer. So according to my father, he'd slowly drive into town, staying in the right lane, for this purpose. Finally he died. And my Great Grandma was just devastated (according to my father).


Great Grandma was taken care of by my Grandma for a while, at Grandpa's insistence. Finally, after the family complained, he agreed to have her go to a nursing home.


I don't know too much about other Great Grandpa (my Grandma's father). Grandma's mother died when she was quite young. And she was very close to her father. That's all I know. (Mr. Pope, BTW, did a genealogy for the family. He is the one that claims we are related to Joseph Compau, one of the founders of the City of Detroit [I still can't figure out why the names are spelled differently, then].) But since extended families were quite common at the time, both grandfather's lived at my father's house. And they got along very well too, my father told me. Isn't that touching?


My mother's maternal grandmother came from a rich family in Austria. Her husband told her he'd make his fortune in America. But he never really did. But she had no regrets (my mother told me).


My mother's paternal grandparents apparently lived in Poland. My Aunt (1925-2015) could still write them letters in Polish. My mother
and her could still converse in Polish. But my mother often remarked, it was impressive she could still do this. After my aunt died, we largely lost contact with my Polish relatives. It was a very long time ago by now, anyways.

Now share your stories .

 

Since family history is my hobby, I know a lot about my great-grandparents. I even have over 50 letters written by my great-grandmother to my maternal grandfather in 1906 and 1907. They were all simple people, trying to get by on small farms in rural Georgia.

 

almost nothing of a personal nature as i only ever met my mother's mother, and she was in the hospital dying at the time, and the was when i was eleven, in 1959.

my mother's father was a kanigsberg, somehow closely related to the allan, (whom divorsed my grand mom near the biginning of the depression of the 1930s, which was both my parents teen age years)

my father's father's father's father's father was the leader of the hessian military contractors hired by the british befor there was a u.s., during the 'french and indian' war.
(nathian teall)

hes own father, was, according to him, some kind of protestant fanatic, who ran a bowling alley in the days before mechanical pin spotters (my father was born some time between 1919 and 1921, my mother was born in 1919, on the boat, coming over from poland, after the pogroms and before the holocaust. a babe in her mother's arms, going through ellis island). as mentioned never met anyone on my dad's side of the family. for various reasons, mostly in his own head, he never wanted anything to do with any of them.

it is even possible, my dad never wanted anyone, even me, to learn of his own real history. he would mention isolated incidents, supposedly in his life, but they always sounded made up and filled with inconsistencies. so i've always been a little curious, but never quite curious enough to pay anyone to try and find out.

my father's mother was, again supposedly according to him, the daughter of a father from clan ross, scotland,
and an onandagwa mother, who'd actual name i have never been able to learn.

sooo.

very little contact growing up, or any other time in my life, with anyone related by blood.

each of my mom's three sisters. and the members of their families are the only relatives i'd ever met, and even each of those, only once or twice in my life,
except for one aunt, who would send me a little something in my birthday card once a year, and made it to my wedding.

but that was it, all i've ever known of my relatives in my life.

 

Great great grandparent--Upton Hays was a descendant of Daniel Boone as am I. He died at the Battle of Lone Jack fighting for the confederacy. ( i know you didn't ask, but my great grandfather had a shootout with the nephew of Joaquin Marietta in the San Joaquin Valley. His name was Precopio and he killed the man my grandfather was with. Our families on both sides came out west by wagon train--Hays side from Missouri----(my names) side from Illinois. Family from Illinois had big trouble with the Mormons along the way in Utah.

 

Like most people, very little. I know one great-grandfather on my mother's side emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the 1880s and died around 20 years before I was born. That's about it.

 

I find all history interesting......Family history,from family storys and things past down, i know upto my great grandparents.(no real drive to dig further, dna bla bla)

We originated in Friesland/Groningen............most of my family(aunts/uncles/ect) immigrated to the US/Canada/AUS after WW2

Mzzls

 

Sadly I dont know anything of mine.........

 

I know Everything. I have a large tree on Ancestry.
I also have a best friend who is a genealogist.

 

He was a fan of the Ku Klux Klan.
Allegedly had the first radio in my home town. My Grandfather got it for him one Father's Day, and strung a wire between the trees behind the chicken coops.
At night, he could pick up one station; WSB from Atlanta.

 

Here's an update. Many years ago I gave my grandmother on my father's side a book called A Grandparent's Book which asked her questions about her life which she would fill in. After she died she left the book to me.

They lived in Halifax Canada. My great-grandmother Harriet was an excellent seamstress, made all the clothes for her family. She died at 33 after having 10 children in 15 years.

My great-grandfather John served as a mate on a 3-masted schooner when he was young, rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Later he served as a supervisor for a coal company. He died at 56.

My grandparents moved their family from Halifax to Boston in 1923. Though my great-grandparents died so young, my grandmother lived to be over 100!