A couple of WWI vets, one Spanish American War vet, and several women.

Obviously I'm old as shit...

L-

She passed away some 40 years ago now.

met some Great Grandparents when I was a toddler. my Grandfather was born July 15 1900. he died in 1989.

Both grandparents on the other side of the family were born about the same time, and I remember both of them; they passed away in the '60s. There were also a number of great-aunts and uncles I knew when I was a kid, all of whom were born before 1900. They had a lot of interesting stories about their childhoods, both world wars and the Depression.

It was in the 1980s.

Nice guy, died when I was in junior high school.

All four of my grandparents, a great uncle who came to America in 1911 at the age of 22 off the top of my head.

One grandmother died in 1968, the others in the 1980s.

I had a little old lady neighbor who came to Kansas in a covered wagon. She had so many stories and she shared them with me for several years before she moved away (I think). It was so interesting and I just soaked it up. I know she was born in the 1800's but I do not know when. I am pretty certain I had relatives for a while that were born in the late 1800's but cannot recall just now, great grandparents for sure.

.

He lived to be 96. He homesteaded in Montana in 1912 and with his wife raised 12 children. My uncle just turned the property over to his son.

so yeah, I knew a fair number of people who were born in the 1800s. My grandparents to start with. Probably any grandparents of any of my age mates that I ever met.

What I could not tell you is who would have been the earliest born of any of them.

I don't remember my paternal grandfather very well - he died when I was four - or my maternal grandmother - she died when I was eight. I knew my paternal grandmother pretty well - she lived close to us and we visited almost every Sunday afternoon. I didn't like her very much, though I admire what I have learned about her. She was divorced in 1916, made her own living as a translator (during WWI she helped find draftees who did not speak English and translated so they understood their obligations and were not arrested) and a teacher until she married my grandfather in 1921. She had been a talented musician until her first marriage and played the piano until arthritis made it impossible.

I vaguely remember meeting my step-great grandmother (mother's father's step mother) once - she was born in 1869.

I posted last week about losing my mother on Wednesday (Sept 25) who was 97.

Please accept my condolences.

The funeral was sad in more ways than losing her - her last closest friend had passed away the week before so there were few who really knew her. Some of my sister's and my high school classmates showed up, but none of us really have stayed in touch with people from our home town so there were not many that were close.

The man was quite elderly, and most of his friends and family had passed. My husband knew him from work. My husband started working with him only a few months before the man retired. He went to our church, too.

His widow remembered us. I was glad we took the time to go.

They were all born in the 1800s.

My paternal GF was born in 1891. My maternal GGM was born in 1884.

...and when *he* was a little boy, he met his great-grandfather...who had been a witness to the battle of Concord Bridge in 1775. America's history isn't really that long, in terms of human lives...

"President John Tyler Has 2 Living Grandsons"

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-02-20/president-john-tyler-born-in-1790-still-has-2-living-grandsons

President Tyler's father fought in the Revolutionary War.

"John Tyler Sr. served in the Continental Army as a 1st lieutenant in the 3d Virginia Regiment from February 9 to September 5, 1776. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tyler_Sr.

Two people living today have a great-grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War.

My grandparents and their generation were still working people or recently retired. WWI vets still participated in veterans day and 4th of July parades.

...was born right after the civil war- 1874-
And his great-great-aunt was born three years earlier.

His granddad was born in 1886, and his grandmother in 1896.

He's from long-lived stock-- he knew all of them! His great-great aunt lived to be 106.

I knew her quite well, she passed away in 1977 at age 80 after a life of hard work - she was definitely an American success story, both of her daughters were college graduates as well as all 5 of her grandchildren.

And my paternal grandmother who I was particularly close to had a significant other for the last 12 years of her life. My grandfather had died young, at 48 - left her with 4 children who also graduated from college. She was a teacher and valued education. Paul, as I knew him, was one of my favorite people. He wanted to marry her, but he couldn't convince her. He was also born in 1897, was an ordained minister, had been a college president and head of the YMCA worldwide, based in Geneva. He was forced to retire at 65, in 1962!, and started a whole new career. He was also very interested in politics, I learned a lot from him. Bill Clinton was his candidate well before he was nominated. He died in 1998 at age 101, I still miss him - though I'm afraid what's been going on in this country now would break his heart.

before the spanish flu. his uncles were the babies.

Born 1891, died 1983. She was a hoot, loved her dearly. She died a month before her first great-grandchild was born, and my cousin named his baby girl after Granny.

My mom’s family

They were hearty people who never complained about anything. Having survived the Depression, WWI and WWII, they were Roosevelt Democrats in deep South. Wish I had been a bit older to appreciate them, but I used to love sitting on their front porch of the small farm in the middle of nowhere, listening to them tell old stories.

Born in 1888 in Oakland, Calif.

She lived to be 101!

Grandmother - born in 1894

Was born in Oakland in 1892. She remembered seeing the fires after the San Francisco earthquake.

All four of my grandparents were born in the 1890's.

Last edited Tue Oct 9, 2018, 11:59 PM - Edit history (1)

My great grandparents were living in S.F. during the '06.

As for the rest of the family, they ALL were born in Oakland darned bridge hoppers!

I was very close with my Maternal g-parents. My aunt, my Mom's sister, just passed this year. She was 102. We had a wonderful celebration of her life with 4 generations present.

Last edited Sun Oct 7, 2018, 05:49 PM - Edit history (1)

The grandfather born in (edit out 1970 oops insert 1870) was gone before I was born and his wife, my paternal grandmother, passed away when I was four. My other grandparents passed away wen I as 12 and 26. Had some long generations in that I was born when Dad was 43 (he passed away 1996 age 86) and he was born when his father was 40. Was very close to my Dad's older brother, my uncle, who also passed away in 1996, he was born in 1895. Growing up there were many family friends and other relatives born in the 1880s.

1970. Good typo catch. Alas good basis for family saga had been true.

My parents were born in 1906 and 1909.

Impressive people who had a significant impact on me as a young person. My grandfather in particular.

Two of my great-grandmothers, born in the 1870s, all four of my grandparents, three born in the 1890s, one in the year 1900, Groucho Marx, who was born in 1890 (I was 8, he was 70, and he told me to get lost!), Everett Dirksen (1896), I'm sure several of the members of Congress my dad introduced me to when I was little were born before 1900, but except for Dirksen, I don't remember offhand who they were.

I even met Arizona's Carl Hayden, who was over 90 when I worked as a Senate Page in 1967.

Suomea (Finnish) is a REALLY complicated language. If you don't learn it as a cradle language, it's really difficult. It resembles nothing else (except Estonian, which is essentially a dialect of Finnish).

She was born in 1869. Died in 1969, four months short of her 100th birthday.

Mostly family members, but there were always a few older folks around who were in their 70s, 80s... until there weren't any.

-- Mal

I knew six of my great-grandparents, all of whom were born in the 1880s. In fact, one of my great-grandmothers attended my wedding in 1984. Only my mother's maternal grandparents had died before I was born in 1960; one in the early '30s of typhoid fever, and the other in 1949 at 79 because he was too impatient to wait for his son to help with repairs and fell off the porch roof.

who in his 80's died after he fell from a tree he was trimming.

Also my 4 grandparents were still youngish (in their mid 50's) when I was born, so they were all born between 1895 and 1900. Unfortunately none of my grandparents made it to 90, but 2 of them lived to their mid-80's.

My great regret was that I didn't spend more time asking my grandpa about his childhood and early adulthood. He would have been glad to tell me about it, but I was too wrapped up in my own shit. We Baby Boomers thought we knew everything back in those days.

Didn't know them well as they all died before I was 6 years old

various third cousins (first cousins to my grandparents), I worked in nursing home administration for several years and became acquainted with a great many elderly people, some of whom were happy and eager to talk about their early lives. I knew one lady, a good friend of my mother's, who was born in the 19th century and died in the 21st, at the age of 104.

I feel very fortunate to have encountered so many people born in the 19th century. It was really an interesting time to grow up.

My grandparents were born in the 19c. And I'm not ancient, as I'm nearing sixty.

lived to be 108...

born in 1895

Both my grandfathers and one of my great-grandfathers. All immigrants from Sweden.

As well as one of my great-grandmothers who was born during the Civil War. (She was the only great-grandparent I met.)

as an older boomer my grandparents, and their friends, were born in the 19th century.

She is Finnish and Italian and couldn't communicate with her grandparents on either side. She said they were very loving and she will never forget the many smiles and hugs.

He was born in 1899 in a barn, before his parents built their home. He had 11 brothers and sisters and his mother was half Cherokee Indian.

As a teen he was a cowboy driving cattle on the Chisholm trail. Later he had a farm, that he lost in the Depression. He lived through the Dust Bowl and two World Wars, and once stood down the Ku Klux Klan when they tried to pressure him to join. He said any organization that wants a man to hide his face is not a group he'd want to belong to. He died in the 1960s, when I was 9 years old.

I once interviewed a woman in 1990 who was 93 at the time. Her mother came alone on a clipper ship around Cape Horn and her father was the clipper ship captain. Her mother was the first school teacher in Old Town in San Diego. The woman I interviewed remembered watching Indian women washing clothes in the San Diego river, and recalled when they paved the street in front of her home -- how messy it was with horses and tar wagons, having to hike up their long skirts to go across. In school during WW I, she remembered they would save all their aluminum foil into balls for the war effort.

Her family photo album was amazing. There was a photo of her father with Charles Lindbergh and Clark Gable in leather helmets and silk scarves beside Lindbergh's flying machine. She had no children and at my suggestion, willed her photo collection to the historical society. She'd kept saying nobody would be interested in those old pictures!

was born in 1887, the oldest of 5 brothers. All of the great uncles were born in the 1800s. My two Grandmothers were born in 98 and 99. All passed between 1966 and 1992, I'm 61.

Kaleva, are you from the UP or live in Kaleva?

She died in 1987. Sharp as a back up to the end.
Haele

Paternal Grandfather was born in 1874 and Grandmother was born in 1885.
My Maternal Grandfather was born in 1885 and Grandmother was born in 1889.

Were alive when I was a child.

Funny story;

My Great-Grandmother Brennan was born on a ship from Ireland to America, but it was docked in England when she was born, so she had dual citizenship until she became a naturalized American. She kept it a closely guarded secret until her death because she didn't want anyone to think she was English. She was an Irish Catholic.


So, my Grandmother showed me a letter her mother had received from one her cousins back home talking about another of their cousins who had gotten pregnant by an English officer. She said, "We're all hoping she has the child out of wedlock, because we'd much rather have a bastard in the family than an Englishman."

Time goes by quickly. It won't seem long before some future members ask "Does anyone remember DUers who were posting back in The Time of Great Troubles (Trump's presidency)?"

My maternal grandfather was born in 1879. My grandmother in 1884. They were tough people. My grandfather had a leg amputated in 1929 after being hit by a drunk driver. He lived another 30 years wearing a heavy wooden prosthesis when he left and returned to the 5th floor (no elevator) family apartment. My grandmother buried 4 infants and raised 4 more to adulthood. She lived to be 79. She had sisters who lived to 100. Her two surviving children are my mother (95) and my aunt (93). I only knew my grandparents as a child but they made a lasting impression and live on in the many stories my mother relates to ths day.

She was born in 1869. She passed in 1969 one day before her 100th birthday.

all those folk first saw daylight and strode here on Earth back in the nineteenth century