Family Trees

A thread for eclectic, stray thoughts about relatives and family connections.

I have recently become a great uncle. Anyone here have great grandchildren? How old were you when it happened?

My two sons are the only people in the world who will be able to carry on my family name because my father only had sisters, his father and grandfather had no siblings. Perhaps there is some way that my initial assertion might not be true.

What's the most distant relative that you are in contact with?

About 10 years ago, my sons visited both of their great grandmothers [on their mother's side] on the same day. Did anyone here meet their great grand parents? I missed out on that by about 40 years.

My great grandfather was knocked over by Winston Churchill. (Well, to be precise, Churchill was a passenger in the car that knocked him over). Compensation money funded a stamp shop that was eventually handed down to my father.

Edit: I only got to meet one great grand mother and remember more her massive dog. (A Great Dane).

I had uncles/great uncles/great great uncles who died in the Boer War, the Easter Rising, World War One, the Irish Civil War, World War Two, and Korean War.

@fmf said
I had uncles/great uncles/great great uncles who died in the Boer War, the Easter Rising, World War One, the Irish Civil War, World War Two, and Korean War.

You’re not “Lieutenant Dan” by any chance are you?

@fmf said
What's the most distant relative that you are in contact with?

A distant cousin, his great-Grandparents havebeen my great-great-Grandparents.

He is doing genealogy as a hobby.

@fmf said
A thread for eclectic, stray thoughts about relatives and family connections.

I have 6 children. No grandchildren yet, but I expect them to be arriving within a few years.

My parents have 3 children and 21 grandchildren.

My wife's parents have 6 children, 38 grandchildren (probably not done yet - will likely eclipse 40), and 2 great-grandchildren (likely to eclipse 200 when all is said and done).

In my community, except for my parents' small output, I'd say we're about average.

@fmf said
About 10 years ago, my sons visited both of their great grandmothers [on their mother's side] on the same day. Did anyone here meet their great grand parents? I missed out on that by about 40 years.

All my great-grandparents were dead before I was born.

My father never saw any of his grandparents. My father was born in 1950. His 4 grandparents were all gassed at Auschwitz.

@sh76 said
My father was born in 1950. His 4 grandparents were all gassed at Auschwitz.

What an incomprehensible black hole in your family's history that is.

@sh76 said
My parents have 3 children and 21 grandchildren.My wife's parents have 6 children, 38 grandchildren

Does that mean you have 53 nephews and nieces or 47?

@fmf said
Does that mean you have 53 nephews and nieces or 47?

I double counted my own, so that's 47 total.

And I think I know all of their names. 🙂

@fmf said
What an incomprehensible black hole in your family's history that is.

I asked my father what it was like growing up without grandparents. He said it was fairly common in his (Manhattan German-Jewish) community. Most of his friends were missing one or both sets of grandparents. It's one reason we don't really have that much insight into what pre-war life was like. Sure my paternal grandfather grew up in Berlin, so we have some stories, but nothing from previous generations.