Old maid up the road

[swamp]

My grandfather used to make stills during prohibition. It was very profitable.

[thyme4change]

My grandfather was scouted by MLB in the 30's, but refused because he would have to play on Sundays, and he was deeply faithful to God.

[Green Eyed Lady]

Sept 14, 2012 9:15:48 GMT -5 swamp said:

My grandfather used to make stills during prohibition. It was very profitable.

Cousin Swamp?

[movingforward]

When my mother passed away I found out from my dad that their anniversary date had been a lie for 43 yrs. My parents got engaged as soon as they graduated high school and she went away to college with my dad but lived with a group of girls (because you know back then you apparently were shunned if you lived together before marriage). Anyway, my mom got pregnant with my brother in October of that year and they went to the courthouse and got married 2 days before Thanksgiving. When they went home at Thanksgiving they told the entire family that they were married in August so for 43 yrs they celebrated their anniversary in August when their real anniversary was Nov. 23rd.

[Deleted]

When my grandmother passed away this spring (grandfather predeceased her by several years), I found an old picture of a man in a service uniform that was not my grandfather. My father and his sister told me it was probably Jack, my grandmother's first husband. They were only married a few months (he hit her). She divorced him and asked for a transfer overseas (they were both in the Air Force). Once in Germany, she met my grandfather. My father and his sister only learned about this when they were in their forties and only because my grandfather cracked a couple jokes about divorce and remarriage which ended up having to be explained.

Same grandparents met in Germany, got married in France, then got married again when they came home because their families didn't think the overseas wedding counted. We only have a few pictures from the first wedding, none from the second, and never saw a marriage certificate or license for either. My grandparents said their anniversary was in March, but we don't know if that was the first or second wedding. We think it must be the second because my father was born in October and my grandmother swore that they didn't "anticipate their vows".

[midjd]

My grandpa used to do the evening pickups for a funeral home in exchange for free rent (he spent his days working in a barbershop). He also joined the Army at 16 and got malaria while stationed in the South Pacific during WWII. He's a pretty cool guy.

[Waffle]

We have tons of old family stories. Here's a couple:

There's the story of an old relative who used to live in a "shack" at the edge of the . In exchange for free rent, he had to get the word out every time the caught on fire.

My father's family left the old country because they shared a last name with the dictator who had just been overthrown. They swear they weren't related to him. Maybe yes, maybe no?

[Tennesseer]

On the 1890 U.S. Census, my grandfather's first and middle names are listed as Arthur Martin. Same is true for the 1900 U.S. Census. The 1910 U.S. Census lists him as Martin Arthur, the name sequence he used for the rest of his life. We never knew that.

[Angel!]

My great grandfather owned a store. Someone tried to sell him a kid in exchange for food during the great depression.

[movingforward]

Sept 14, 2012 10:44:49 GMT -5 Angel! said:

My great grandfather owned a store. Someone tried to sell him a kid in exchange for food during the great depression.

ETA: My great grandfather shot himself the day the stock market crashed. Great grandmother passed away during child birth so my grandfather was left with no one but an abusive aunt at the age of eight.

[Deleted]

My last name has a 'g' in it. Our relatives in Italy don't have the 'g'. My great great grandfather couldn't write and when he came over the boat, someone in immigration added the 'g'. We don't pronounce it, we leave it silent.

[Tennesseer]

The old U.S. censuses can be very informative.

At the time of her death, my mother had late stage Alzheimer's disease. My mother's paternal half-brother died from Alzheimer's disease too. Their father (my other grandfather) died relatively young. But an 1890 U.S. census and 1898 death certificate shows my grandfather's father living and dying in an 'insane asylum'.

As Alzheimer's disease wasn't identified as a disease until 1901, I assume my paternal great-grandfather also had what is now known as Alzheimer's disease.

[greenstone]

My great-grandma ran a small restaurant and did catering so she was always bring home leftovers.
One evening while she was working, my great-granddad and grandpa where home playing cards and got hungry.
They made sandwiches out off leftovers they found wrapped up in aluminum foil in the fridge.
When g-grandma got home, they told her they really enjoyed the bratwurst, that it was delicious.
She didn't pay them much attention till she went to feed the dog.
She asked them if they knew where the dog food was. She had left it wrapped in Al foil in the fridge. ;D

[Spellbound454]

My grandmother was brought up by her mother and step father.
As a child I asked about her real father and she said he had died in a asylum.................. and she could only remember that he was a soldier and he had a black spot on his forehead which became a hole.

Anyway years later....... and curious about this story I obtained his death certificate.
He had died in an asylum.....not of madness, or anything hereditary....but of tertiary syphilis...

[Gardening Grandma]

My great grandmother was a midwife. She delivered hundreds of babies during her stint. I was told that many of them were named "Maggie" after her. She was also known as a "healing woman". When someone got sick, she'd be fetched. She'd come driving a horse drawn wagon, shoo the kids out of the house, treat the sick person with some kind of herbal tea, then scrub the house from top to bottom.

I've been told (but never able to confirm) that my great uncle was a member of the KKK

I have not decided whether to include that tidbit in a family book I'm working on......he doesn't have any living children or grandchildren....

[Pants]

My grandfather was in training for the Olympics (for swimming) when WWII broke out. At 17, he ran away and lied about his age to join the army - became a fighter pilot.

At some point during the war, he was in France. He and his unit found a crate of Chanel No. 5 in a basement - you couldn't get it in the US during the war, apparently. So they stole it, or, er... liberated it... and he said he sent a bottle to literally every girl he'd ever met back home. Which was apparently the only reason my grandmother gave him the time of day.

When he came home, he went back to high school to get his diploma. He was enrolled for 4 weeks before the school gave him his diploma and made him graduate - apparently a 21 year old, athletic, handsome "war hero" was not a great tool to make a bunch of 17 year old girls focus on their studies.

[WholeLottaNothin]

GardeningGrandma - My Great -grandfather too is suspected (but never confirmed as) a member of the KKK. Apparently my Great-grandmother had made a passing comment about how she was glad to have left GA when they did because she was tired of washing his hood

[Tennesseer]

Sept 14, 2012 12:59:36 GMT -5 WholeLottaNothin said:

GardeningGrandma - My Great -grandfather too is suspected (but never confirmed as) a member of the KKK. Apparently my Great-grandmother had made a passing comment about how she was glad to have left GA when they did because she was tired of washing his hood

Washing his hood? He must have been very active.

[NoNamePerson]

Found a Certificate of Birth in my mothers stuff after she passed away. DOB, city and county were correct but it had first and last name different from what I knew as her name. Only middle name was the same. She always said she was an orphan and offered up no info......

I also think I have a half brother floating around somewhere.

According to marriage license father was older than mother.

According to my birth certificate my mother was older than my father.

[Deleted]

During WWII my grandfather was a gunner, the guy that sits in the back of the plane shooting. He was shot down behind enemy lines one time and it took him a while to get back to his unit. When he did get back "those bastards had divvied up my shaving gear and socks and wouldn't give them back" That is almost word for word how he told the story. I always wondered what was involved in "getting back" to his unit.

[lynnerself]

My grandmother went to Social Security to start collecting benefits and found out that the birthday she had used for 60+ years was wrong and she was a year older that she thought.
The good new was collected a back year of benefits (at least that's how she explained it.)

[Gardening Grandma]

I am SO enjoying these stories. Karma for starting this thread.

[Deleted]

In the 1930's my grandmother and her cousin were caught stealing $10. Their parents had the choice of paying back $5 each or sending the girls to reform school. The cousin's parents paid the money. My great grandfather refused to pay and my great grandmother (they were divorced at the time) couldn't afford to pay, so my grandmother spent 3 years in reform school in Nova Scotia. We only found this out after she died. She always referred to going to nursing school and we never thought anything of it. After she died her younger sister told us about it.

[KaraBoo]

For years, my Grandma told the story of the Christmas presents they received one year as young kids (probably in the 30's): a new toothbrush each and an orange each. A few years before she passed away, she had a reunion with her remaining siblings and was corrected on her story. They ALSO received a pair of socks each. She had forgotten about those socks for many, many years...... ;D

[lynnerself]

My grandmother on my mother's side moved from Kansas to New Mexico in a covered wagon with her 5 siblings.
This is only interesting because the family could have taken the train, this was about 1910, but her father thought it would be an adventure.
Some adventure, she said her mother was not pleased and that her little sister got sick and almost died.

[movingforward]

Sept 14, 2012 14:42:24 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

My grandmother on my mother's side moved from Kansas to New Mexico in a covered wagon with her 5 siblings.
This is only interesting because the family could have taken the train, this was about 1910, but her father thought it would be an adventure.
Some adventure, she said her mother was not pleased and that her little sister got sick and almost died.

Today I find taking the train instead of flying to be an adventure

[wodehouse]

Someone tried to sell him a kid in exchange for food during the great depression.

I misread this as "the great desperation". I'm thinking that that's a pretty good description of the Great Depression.

[greenstone]

When my grandparents were 19 and 21 they drove across the state line be witnesses for another couple they were both friends with who were eloping. They went to a jewelers before the ceremony to get a ring and my grandpa said to my grandma that since they were there, did she want to get married too. She said okay.
They went to the courthouse but were told the other couple could not get married because the bride was too young. (They claim she was 18, but at the very least she had graduated high school.) My grandma (very maturely) said she wasn't getting married if her friend wasn't. I guess the official wanted the marriage license fees, because they relented and both couples were married.
My grandparents told both their parents that they were spending the night at a friend's house, which they did, the friend was just out of town. Both then went back to living with their parents without telling their parents they were married because my great-grandma didn't approve of my grandpa. G-grandma though grandma could do much better ($$-wise).
A few months went by and my grandma discovered she was pregnant.
Shortly after learning she was pregnant, grandma walked in on her mother on the phone with a friend talking about a childhood friend of my grandma's. Her mother was saying "I always liked X but I heard he was going around saying Helen was pregnant"
Grandma almost had a heart attack and had to confess to her parent that she was married and indeed pregnant.
My grandparents had an extremely happy marriage.

[mollyanna58]

My great-grandparents emigrated from eastern Europe in early 1900s. GGrandfather was an iron worker, the kind who made ornamental fences, balconies, and so forth. He couldn't get enough of the kind of work he wanted and immigrants in general were treated poorly, so he went back to Europe after a few years. GGrandmother refused to go back with him, because she did not want her sons involved in the continual wars in their homeland. She had to place her sons in an orphanage for a few years until she could earn enough money to support them.

My grandfather always told my mother that GGrandfather was dead. He actually did not die until after WWII, and he had a second family after he returned to Europe.

[Deleted]

These stories are amazing.

My parents were Holocaust survivors. At some point they were in Austria (I think, it's funny how we have a way of forgetting painful things) and needed to get to Italy.

Nobody would take them over the border because my sister was a little baby and the guys who would bring immigrants over the border were scared she would cry. She was six months old.

My parents finally found somebody who agreed to take them over the border (the Alps!!!). It cost twice as much, and there was just one condition ... my parents had to fill the baby's bottle with vodka to make sure she slept.

They did it. They ended up in a refugee camp in the town where the Pope had a summer home (castel del gonfo? Something like that). My mom used to joke that my sister was the only Jewish baby to be blessed by the Pope every Sunday.

From there they got legal passage to Israel.

When my sister was 12 our Dad decided he did not want my sister to serve in the army, so he was going to the US.

He went to the US. It took him a year to bring my mom and my sister over.

My mom had spent 13 years trying to get pregnant with a second child, she could not get pregnant. A few months after she arrived in the US, she felt sick all the time. Her recent immigrant friends told her about a miracle drug, Alka-Seltzer.

My mom kept taking it, kept taking it, and kept taking it. She still felt sick.

And then I was born, and for YEARS, my parents' friends all called me "the alka-seltzer baby".



ETA: I don't think my geography is wrong but if it is, my parents never, ever, ever wanted to talk about this. Growing up, it was ALL totally taboo.

The only reason I even know this story is that once when my dad came here after my divorce, he said, I'd like to take your close friends out to dinner to thank them for taking good care of you. So, my dad took me, a VERY close friend and her husband out to dinner. The husband is a HUGE history buff. So believe it or not, what I remember, I remember from my friend's husband.