My mom showed me some of my family history I had never seen before. My great grandfather was born in 1870. He died in 1959 ten years before I was born. It's amazing to think about the changes he must have seen. Electricity ,telephones, Radio, TV, cars,refrigerators and air planes! I wonder what it was like going from a horse and buggy to a Buick with a Dynaflow in his lifetime. Must have been exciting and amazing.
my great grandfather
- Thread starter Chris142
- Start date
- Status
Your great granddad led a privileged life. He was born only 5 years after the civil war, but was born at a time where he sidestepped all the wars of one of the bloodiest centuries in history. He was an adult for all that time you talk about. Unbelievable.
My grandmother was born in 1889. I was born in 1946. She died in 1985. I really thought she would make it to a hundred. We still miss her today, what a lady......................died at home at the kitchen table that summer. She was never in a hospital for anything, just lived a good life.
Yes, he did live in an interesting time. Not too long before his birth, the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid, and shortly after his passing satellites began carrying messages around the globe. Today, we have those powers at our fingertips. It's all rather amazing.
About the same birthdate as my great grandfather. My grandfather was born in the mid 1890's. For both of them, the steam locomotive and the telegraph were amazing things. My grandfather died in the mid 1980's and saw jet aircraft, TV, radio, the start of computers, automobiles, electric applinaces and lights as well as the telephone system. Quite a life.
Hello, Not nearly as rich...but I love thinking about my paternal grandmother who was born in 1898. She remembers hearing the hubbub over the Wright brothers flight; saw the lunar landings on TV and lived to see the SST come and go at Kennedy Int'l airport. Kira
My grandpa was born in 1911 and lived to be 98. I was out visiting and he had cajoled a business owner into giving us a tour. He let it slip that he surveyed the property at that street corner seventy years ago. In the 1940s he worked as city clerk and signed his own deed for his grave site that he didn't occupy until the next millenium!
He lived near Youngstown, OH, near the "Western Reserve Road", an arbitrary dividing line from mapmaking back in the day. I was showing him a GPS about 10 years ago (AFAIK he never saw one before) and he nonchalantly said if I went out to Western Reserve it would be XX Longitude and of course he was spot on. Being near steel town he worked for a slag company. They used slag as aggregate in road building but fixed the steel process to produce less. So he had to find gravel in the wild. He'd knock on farmers' doors and get them to sign papers (presumably for a nice financial reward). If they did a core sample and found gravel they had the rights. He didn't get drafted in WWII because of his involvement with the essential war materials.
He went to college, first in his family, and paid his way by gambling on horses. He had a job scooping manure and tending the horses so he had insider info on who was doing well that day. And they let him bet! Amazing!
After he died my uncle found an old video they did for a cousin's school project and my grandma came from "old money" but they lost it all in a bank failure in the 1930s. They traded their house for a junky one and got by.
Old guys, they're full of stories.
He lived near Youngstown, OH, near the "Western Reserve Road", an arbitrary dividing line from mapmaking back in the day. I was showing him a GPS about 10 years ago (AFAIK he never saw one before) and he nonchalantly said if I went out to Western Reserve it would be XX Longitude and of course he was spot on. Being near steel town he worked for a slag company. They used slag as aggregate in road building but fixed the steel process to produce less. So he had to find gravel in the wild. He'd knock on farmers' doors and get them to sign papers (presumably for a nice financial reward). If they did a core sample and found gravel they had the rights. He didn't get drafted in WWII because of his involvement with the essential war materials.
He went to college, first in his family, and paid his way by gambling on horses. He had a job scooping manure and tending the horses so he had insider info on who was doing well that day. And they let him bet! Amazing!
After he died my uncle found an old video they did for a cousin's school project and my grandma came from "old money" but they lost it all in a bank failure in the 1930s. They traded their house for a junky one and got by.
Old guys, they're full of stories.
It is amazing to thing that the technological foundation of our modern world was poured in just two or three decades surrounding the turn of the last century. Today’s technology is pretty amazing but it is mostly just the natural evolution of what was started a little over a century ago. My generation has never known the world without instant communication and speedy travel. My great grandmother remembered her first telephone call and when many of the ships still used sails. It must have been and incredible time to live.
She used to say it all just seemed like magic and you couldn’t wait to see what we would come up with next.
She used to say it all just seemed like magic and you couldn’t wait to see what we would come up with next.
What gets me is 150 years ago there was free land for the taking out west and so much unsettled territory. There are more humans alive now than have ever lived and died in recorded history. Things have been interesting but could easily become that way again.
Originally Posted By: Turk
A great generation.
I always wonder what they would think of all the walking Zombies we have now...
They would think just that, they are walking zombies.
I am in a fairly young generation (I am 31) and even I hate where the world is going.
A great generation.
I always wonder what they would think of all the walking Zombies we have now...
They would think just that, they are walking zombies.
I am in a fairly young generation (I am 31) and even I hate where the world is going.
Originally Posted By: SLCraig
Originally Posted By: Turk
A great generation.
I always wonder what they would think of all the walking Zombies we have now...
They would think just that, they are walking zombies.
I am in a fairly young generation (I am 31) and even I hate where the world is going.
+1
Originally Posted By: Turk
A great generation.
I always wonder what they would think of all the walking Zombies we have now...
They would think just that, they are walking zombies.
I am in a fairly young generation (I am 31) and even I hate where the world is going.
+1
Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Your great granddad led a privileged life. He was born only 5 years after the civil war, but was born at a time where he sidestepped all the wars of one of the bloodiest centuries in history. He was an adult for all that time you talk about. Unbelievable.
Huh??
Ever hear of WWI and WWII? Korea?
And in the 1800s:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1800%E2%80%931899
Unbelievable.
Your great granddad led a privileged life. He was born only 5 years after the civil war, but was born at a time where he sidestepped all the wars of one of the bloodiest centuries in history. He was an adult for all that time you talk about. Unbelievable.
Huh??
Ever hear of WWI and WWII? Korea?
And in the 1800s:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1800%E2%80%931899
Unbelievable.
I am 58, and came along later in my Dad's life when he was 54. He was born in 1900 in Bardstown, KY.
He remembered when there were no cars, no electricity as a child. My own father - not my grandfather - could have shaken hands with someone who had shaken Abraham Lincoln's hand.
He passed in 1979.
He remembered when there were no cars, no electricity as a child. My own father - not my grandfather - could have shaken hands with someone who had shaken Abraham Lincoln's hand.
He passed in 1979.
- Status
