Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: Wowbagger on 30 December, 2021, 02:13:57 pm

Title: How great thou art?
Post by: Wowbagger on 30 December, 2021, 02:13:57 pm
My sister revealed to me yesterday that she is a great-grandmother, on account of her son impregnating his girlfriend when he was only 17. My nephew is now 46 and his 27-year-old son (that's what I was told - I think the arithmetic works) came to see him at Christmas and it all went swimmingly well, or so I understand. My nephew has two grandchildren, which makes me a great-great uncle. I still have an extant aunt who is

great-great-great aunt Glenys. She's my dad's baby sister and a mere girl at 97.

I've not knowingly met anyone with so many greats in their title before. Does anyone else have any of these?
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: T42 on 30 December, 2021, 02:22:43 pm
Neither of my kids elected to have children, so I'm not even a grand*.  I do have a few of great-nieces & nephews, though.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Kim on 30 December, 2021, 02:30:43 pm
Impressively, given the age of my parents, I briefly had a great-grandmother.  My only memory of her is of being pursued by her enormous barking and slobbering hound[1] as a small, which set me up with a phobia of dogs.

I have no intention of breeding.


[1] With hindsight, probably an ISO standard Labrador.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 30 December, 2021, 02:33:05 pm
Probably got a few hemidemisemi-cousins* knocking around somewhere but Mrs Larrington (decd.) was the only one of three siblings to have children while on the other side Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) is an only child whose Uncle Fred was killed utterly to DETH at Ypres before he’d had a chance to breed.

* unless big-eyed beans from Venus have done for them, obv.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Beardy on 30 December, 2021, 05:38:27 pm
I’m still only a father on account of the beardlings being somewhat reluctant to breed due to environmental impact. Ms Beardy the elder also has the excuse of medical abstention due to polysistic kidneys her husband is saddled with and being of no permanent address1 is unable to adopt, the only route for obtaining offspring they would consider.

Number one sone and his wife may yet procreate, but she’s a career driven lady and they live in a teeny tiny flat in that London, so I’m not holding my breath.

Ms Beardy the younger is the most motivated to produce, but the lack of a partner, a job or much of a social life largely due to poor mental health, again I’m not expecting much anytime soon.

1. Apparently living in a tied home makes you an unstable proposition and thus not eligible to be considered as adoptive parents.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: ian on 30 December, 2021, 06:21:06 pm
No kids here, but my mother has twelve brothers and sisters, and we're the sort of family that doesn't let the run-up to GCSEs get in the way of breeding, so I figure I must be a great uncle of someone, but I'm not exactly close to any of them these days. I have around 35 cousins – we used to rampage around town fueled by broken biscuits and Kia-Ora every Saturday in an orgy of barbarianism that would have had Attila the Hun shaking his head in horror. I do have a niece, courtesy of my sister.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: hellymedic on 30 December, 2021, 06:38:34 pm
My great-uncle died at 104 in 2018. He was two generations senior to me.

His mother, my great-grandmother, died in 1967 and I met her on occasions.

The three grandparents I met lived into the 1990s so I was adult when they died. They were in their 30s when my parents were born.

Several of my siblings were grandparents by the time my great-uncle died, so he would have been their grandchildren's great great great uncle and four generations senior to them, making five generations.

Each generation has been conceived and born in wedlock.

I have (too) many great-nieces and great-nephews.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Basil on 30 December, 2021, 09:18:02 pm
No greatness here.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: drossall on 31 December, 2021, 03:41:12 am
I have memories of my maternal great grandmother, who lived with my grandparents when I was a child. I am now a proud grandfather. I was struck simply by how many generations that represents.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: chrisbainbridge on 31 December, 2021, 08:19:57 am
We are grandparents to two little girls. FiL is still alive so we have 4 generations.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: orienteer on 31 December, 2021, 10:10:46 am
My only claim to greatness is through my brother's grandkids, presumably my great nieces and nephews.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Efrogwr on 31 December, 2021, 11:44:55 am
My mother in law's uncle was still alive when EMinor wasborn, making him a great-great uncle.

Mrs E and I are great aunt/uncle to a dozen.

A former girlfriend was a grandmother before she was thirty five... she might be a candidate for the greatest., as she will now be in her seventies.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Salvatore on 31 December, 2021, 12:44:11 pm
In answer to the OP, not I.

My mother knew three of her grandparents. One grandfather was staying with her family when she, as a 13 year old, went to his room one morning but couldn't wake him up. A grandmother lived next door until my mother was in her early 20s. And now her 4-year-old great-granddaughter visits her several times a week in the care home where she lives.

When I was young my grandfather used to tell us tales of when he was young in a Norfolk village in the 1890s and early 1900s. These included stories told to him by his grandfather, one of which involved his father in 1846 (my GGG GF). We got him (my GF) to write down his memoirs before he died, and I've been able to verify many of them using newspaper archives and at the National Archives.

My grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather in action at a village fete in 1911
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51789958464_2dc807f131_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mUv5jm)

My uncle was a GP in Wolverhampton for all his professional life, and GPed  five generations of the same family. The oldest generation were elderly when he started, and their great great grandchild was born just before he retired.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: ElyDave on 31 December, 2021, 01:05:30 pm
At the moment not at all, but my nephew married earlier this year, Indian family so it won't be long before the questions about babies get asked, so I would be a great uncle and my in-laws, great-grandparents
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: Jurek on 31 December, 2021, 01:10:13 pm
I'm a great uncle but, as my great nephew is 18 months old, I have yet to meet him because Covid.
Title: Re: How great thou art?
Post by: JennyB on 31 December, 2021, 01:20:15 pm
I'm a great-aunt several times over, but previous generations tended to marry late. My youngest great-grandfather was born in 1815.