How many of your grandparents are still alive?

None. 3 had died by the time I was 11 and the 4th died when I was 18. Two were in their early 80s and the other two early 70s.

No all dead. On my mas side , my granda died in the 70s ,I never met him . My nanny died 3 years ago , she was 98 . She was 14 months away from being a 100 . She was real religious , never drank or smoke went to mass everyday . Never remarried after her husband died nearly 50 years earlier . I suppose it's strange to us being only with one person your whole life.
On my dad's side , his father died at 84 from something to do with smoking . He was born in 1910. I remember he didn't smoke in the house when we visited so I used to always follow him out to the shed to talk to him. I'd have loved if he lived a bit longer cos I'm really into Irish history and id have loads of questions now to ask him about what was like back then, during the war of Independence and the civil war etc. My nanny died at age 74 , she was 12 years younger than him when they married not a big deal back then. She got a stroke and died 2 years later. She was a lovely person .

I never knew any of my grandparents - the last one died when I was about 3. We had one great-aunt, and I think I met her once at age 6 or so.

None of mine sadly my mother's mother died when my mom was twelve. Her father died with i was three.

My father's father died only few months until i was born. He hung on just to see me and hold me. He cried when he held me.

My father's mother died when I was 20.

I'm in my late twenties!
Grandfather died in 1963 was in his late fifties.(I think)
Grandmother died in 1979 was in her seventies,
Grandfather died in 1975 was in is sixties.
Grandmother died in 2009 was in her nineties.

So, I knew one of them.

JupiterKid wrote: »

Would I be correct in presuming that those posters whose grandparents - particularly their parental grandparents - passed away before they were born or when they were very young because their fathers married and had a family late in life?

Would I also be correct to presume that most of these posters come from a rural background, more specifically a farming background, where it seems to me that men in farming in Ireland traditionally married in their 40s or 50s to a considerably younger wife? Why is that?

Another thing that seems to be quite common to posters on this thread is that we didn’t have rich grandparents with trust funds to pass on to their children or grandchildren. Most of our grandparents struggled and had a pretty hard life because they were relatively poor, because Ireland was poor and underdeveloped when they were young.

It varied where I came from. Some couples married young but many were economic migrants, who might have spent many years travelling to and from the UK before either settling there or moving back here. Only two of my aunts/uncles married in their twenties. Everyone else was 35+ and my parents were 40+. My maternal grandad was 50 when his last child was born, as was my paternal grandmother when her youngest arrived.


All were brought up in a culture where the norm was either to migrate or emigrate to England when they reached 14 and send money home to help the family. No free secondary education and few other opportunities. Up to the late 70s my father and most of my friends' fathers worked in England for 9 or 10 months of the year leaving our mothers to care for the young, the old, the disabled and run their smallholdings. It was a tough life and one I'm grateful I don't have to live.

I'm. 38. Not alive. One of either side went to the nineties.

JupiterKid wrote: »

Would I also be correct to presume that many of these posters come from a rural background, more specifically a farming background, where it seems to me that men in farming in Ireland traditionally married in their 40s or 50s to a considerably younger wife? Why is that?

.

Definitely in my case. My maternal grandfather (a farmer) was born in 1889 and didn't marry until he was about 45, to a woman 16 years younger. He died in 1970, 7 years before I was born. My granny died in 1989, 100 years almost to the day from her husband's birth!

All gone unfortunately

All long gone. Both grandfathers died long before I was born. Grandmothers died when I was 10 and 14.
Now I'm 38, my mother died in 2009, and father in 2013. Have a 6 week old son now. I'll have to tell him about them when he's older. It's quite sad really. And I get a certain jealousy when I see people who are older than I am, who still have both of their parents.

Gwynplaine wrote: »

All long gone. Both grandfathers died long before I was born. Grandmothers died when I was 10 and 14.
Now I'm 38, my mother died in 2009, and father in 2013. Have a 6 week old son now. I'll have to tell him about them when he's older. It's quite sad really. And I get a certain jealousy when I see people who are older than I am, who still have both of their parents.

My mother died in 08. My little one is 5 and adores her 'Nana' and I do feel that pang that she never knew my Mam as well.