Lives of your great-grandfathers


Who were your great-grandfathers? and what did they do in their lives?

Just been thinking about this after looking at another thread, to think about the challenges they had to face in life, and how different it is from today.

1. Born in Old Simpson street 1899, Deptford, Died in Dunkirk, a bit old (40?) to be in the army.
2. Born in Southwick, 1909, Irish family, killed in a mining accident in Hylton Colliery (1954), had 7 children!
3. Born in East End, 1924, fought in Burma Campaign, died in 2016 (the only one I ever knew)
4. Know nothing about the final one, born 1919, died before I was born.
 
Only thing I know about mine was that he was a messenger in the First World War and was killed at Arras in France in 2015.

My great grandmother was pregnant when he left to go to war and she never saw him again. She named her son, my grandpa, Arras.

My mam and dad took him to Arras in the early 90s to find his dads grave. They went to the town hall for information about where he might be and when they learned his name and the reason behind it, they practically shoed my mam and dad out of the door and looked after my grandpa for the rest of the day.
 
I'm 60 and my father was relatively old when he had me (50). He was born in 1913. His father was also quite old when my father was born. So one of my grandfathers was born in the 1860s! That means that both of his parents probably survived the Irish Famine of the late 1840s as children. I have a photograph of one of them - a great grandmother from 1913 when she looks in her 70s - and find it fascinating.
 
Dad's dad's dad: A chef in the merchant navy from Cornwall, he froze to death on a ship in Russian waters after a fall.
Dad's mam's dad: Irish, I believe, from Dublin. All I know.
Mam's mam's dad: He fled the family when his daughter was still a baby, never seen again.
Mam's dad's dad: I know little but I gather he was a Co Durham farmhand like his son.

All long dead before I was around. I only ever knew one of my grandparents.
 
We found out quite recently that my grandad (dad's dad) was adopted.
He died in a pit accident when he was 47 and my dad was 13. We don't know if he knew he was adopted.
My dad knew his grandma and granddad growing up but never knew he wasn't blood-related to his granddad.
We hit a dead-end trying to trace his birth grandad. Got a name but details are scant.
It's my dad's sister doing the research on that side of the family. Not much history from my mam's side but both sides/all seem to be descended from Ireland. Probably all came over during the potato famine.

It interests me but I haven't done any of the hard work researching.
 
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Mothers side.
Ralph March, born 1885 in Marsden Colliery, Whitburn. He was a miner and I've just realised I haven't researched when he died.
Charles William Stuart, born 1876 in Birtley. died 1951 aged 74 in Hendon.

Fathers side.
Alfred John Gaster, born 1868 Poplar, London (East End). Died 1897 aged 29, buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery (Ripper suspect ????)
Alfred Keenan, born 1861 Sunderland (to Irish parents) Died 1923 aged 62 in Southwick.
 
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I'm 60 and my father was relatively old when he had me (50). He was born in 1913. His father was also quite old when my father was born. So one of my grandfathers was born in the 1860s! That means that both of his parents probably survived the Irish Famine of the late 1840s as children. I have a photograph of one of them - a great grandmother from 1913 when she looks in her 70s - and find it fascinating.

I’m pleased I’m not the only one, mine are similar ages to yours mate, my dad was 54 when I was born. He was born in 1906 in South Shields, his father in 1857 in westoe South Shields, miner at the colliery (as were all his brothers) so my great grandfather born in 1821 in Sussex somewhere was a seaman married a lass from south shields. No photographs of any of them unfortunately.

On my mothers side, they were from Middlesbrough, mam was 43 when I was born, her dad died in an accident at work in 1916 (28) she was conceived but not born then. His dad worked in a steel mill in Normanby, Ormesby and was a caany age when my grandad was born, he was born around 1852

Never knew any of them obviously, only grandparent I knew was my mothers mother (and my step grandad) when I was little. As for what they did, graft hard. It would have been work, eat (most of the time) sleep, repeat.

I would love a photograph of any of them but was too long ago (or been too expensive) for that.
 
The first son of an army sargent my Great Grandfather was born in Salford. The Census says in 1861 although I can't find his a birth certificate . He then went to Gibralter with is father (& mother) as his father's regiment the 24th of Foot was posted there. After 23 years service (13 of them in India) his father was discharged from the army while in Gibralter. The family then chose to go to Sunderland to settle my GGG finding employment as a shipyard engineer. I presume he had learnt about steam engines while in the army as steam engines are likely to have been needed to service the guns in Gibralter

My GGF also became an " Engineer " but whereas the rest of the family (including my grandfather & father) ended up in the yards my GGF was a railway engineer. He drove trains out of Newcastle where of all people my wife's great grandfather also worked as an engine driver - we have no idea whether they knew one another. In later life my GGF went to live with his daughter in London where he died in the 1930's - I have no idea where . His son's my grandfather's side of the family remained in Sunderland.

As our family name is very common in the North East I was very surprised to find we had Irish connections. There was however never any talk of it and I know my own father was totally unaware of it. My grandfather (born in 1890) had as a child certainly lived in the same household as his widowed grandmother & had done so for several years. It would have been very hard for him not have been aware that she was indeed Irish . I believe that this was either due to a sense of shame or else that the family considered that it had returned to its roots having perhaps originally been a North East family that was exiled to Ireland during the Plantation.
 
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One was one of about 8 from Clydeside. Got into shipbuilding. Worked his way up to become managing director of a yard.

One started life as a coal miner in Wigan, ended up working for a coal merchant in Liverpool, used to go to Dublin regularly for work and one day disappeared there in about 1916 and no trace was ever found of him. Possibly the wrong year to be an Englishman in Dublin. Possibly he ran away. We will never know. Fucked up my great gran and all her kids including my grandad who was sent to Liverpool docks to meet the Dublin ferry every day, can you imagine.
 
Sounds a stupid question but if I wanted to find out, how would I go about it? I’ve always dismissed them ancestry websites as I can’t imagine them having much information on them.
 
1 - Born in Southwick in 1911. Unsure what he did. Actually don’t know when he died either. I’ve not looked into this branch as much.

2 - Born in Stanley 1903, predictably worked as a hewer given where he was from. Died in 1977.

3 - Born in Sunderland 1902, occupation in the 1939 census listed as ‘Heavy Labourer’. Died 1982.

4 - Born in Sunderland in 1900, occupation again ‘General Labourer’. Died in 1977.

Sounds a stupid question but if I wanted to find out, how would I go about it? I’ve always dismissed them ancestry websites as I can’t imagine them having much information on them.

It’s hard if your older relatives are either already gone, or have poor memories. But if you have a living grandparent or someone who can give you names, birthdays and places of birth for their older relatives you can get quite a bit - census records will tell you where they lived, what they did and who they lived with. Marriage records are available. Sometimes some other stuff, I.e if they moved here from abroad they might have a certificate of naturalisation.
 
Sounds a stupid question but if I wanted to find out, how would I go about it? I’ve always dismissed them ancestry websites as I can’t imagine them having much information on them.
They’re not bad at all in fairness. My dad and uncle have been plucking away at our ancestry for a few years now. All miners, ship builders, mariners going back to late 1700s iirc.
 
One died when my mum was only two years old from septicaemia working in Langley Park pit (grandma wnt on to make Whitley bombers during the war). On me dads side my grandad refused the opportunity to become the first communist MP because of his catholicism.
 
I only ever met my maternal great grandad.

He was born in Dalton-Le-Dale in 1912 (I think) and raised by his aunty and uncle. His surname was Graham and his nickname was Grahamy-owa-the-beck, as the house they lived in was, you guessed it, over the other side of the beck that runs through the village.

He served in the Royal Navy during WWII (always corrected people when they just said “navy”, as he wanted people to know it wasn’t just the merchant navy). He travelled around the world and absolutely loved it. His favourite place they were at was Malta, so a few years ago I finally went and turns out it’s a favourite of mine, too.

After leaving the Royal Navy, he drove the busses locally until retiring.

I slept there most weekends as a kid and will never forget his crinkle cut deep fat fried chips.

Sadly died of cancer about 20 year ago.
 

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