BS: Our Grandpas

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Beer
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 04:32 PM

Mum's side. my grandpa served in WW1. Got home stayed about a month then split. Mum was 3 or 4 at the time. I guess he just saw to much and couldn't cope when he got back.
Dad's side, my Grandpa was a fisherman and at some point started to can lobster. I'm told he was the first person to do so. "First meaning what" On P.E.I. or whatever.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: bobad
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 05:20 PM

I was just looking at the Canada immigration site and found the records for the arrival of my maternal grandparents. They landed at Quebec city exactly 80 years ago yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 06:42 PM

Sadly, I know next to nothing about either of my grandfathers.
My mother's father died 9 years before I was born. He worked for the local power company for his entire adult life.

My father's father died when I was around 1 1/2 and I know nothing about him.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Alice
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 06:55 PM

Although I knew my grandpa Earl McConnell, I didn't ever meet my grandpa Lawrence Flynn. He died when I was about a year old.
He came to the US with his parents and siblings from Glenfarne, Leitrim, Ireland. He was 17 when they immigrated in about 1882.
He married a woman from Guissborough, Yorkshire, and they left the family homestead area of Tintah, Minnesota and settled at Old Forge,
near Scranton, PA. I don't know why he moved so far away from the rest of the family. I heard that they did not like the idea of his marriage to an English girl. He was a fireman in Old Forge or Scranton, Pennsylvania.
When my dad was a year old, his mother died along with the last baby she had. Apparently, my grandpa Flynn was not able to cope with this.
My aunt Anne was about 16 years old, and she raised my dad and kept all the 8 kids together. My grandpa was going to split them up
and send them off to different relatives to live. Anne would not allow it and was like a mother to my dad and the other kids after their
mother died.
I have an old photo of my grandfather Lawrence Flynn taken probably in Scranton. He is wearing a dapper suit and fedora and has
a handlebar mustache.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 07:02 PM

Lots of Irish folk back then got into the US through Canada.
Now its Boston that is most friendly.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 07:06 PM

Gracious, Becca. Ask your dad.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 03:23 PM

My paternal grandfather died in 1916 at the Somme six months after his wife (my grandmother) died of TB and he started volunteering for anything and everything earning himself the military medal and enough bars and oak leaves to sink a battleship. My father collected them at the age of six from Buckingham palace after my grandfather died. My maternal grandfather worked on the docks in East London. He was from Waterford but fell out with the family due to his rejectio of Catholicism. I never met him either as he died about ten years before I came along.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: GUEST,Mickey191
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 07:09 PM

Took my Mom back to Cork in "61. Her Dad was about 85 & wee bit shrunken from arthritis I guess. Handlebar mustache and easily offended. I refused a cup of tea saying"No thankyou." Never heard the end of it for a week. So I learned to fake it.

Took my Mom, Aunt and himself for ride and lunch in Dunmanway. The waitress was stunning-with beautiful red hair down to her backside. She was about 18. At one point she had her back turned to Grandpa & he ran his hand down the flowing hair-resting for a beat or two on her derriere. (Or Derry Air since we're in Ireland!) She turned and gave him a huge smile as he crooned "Lovely-just lovely."
The 3 females apologized. The maiden said:"happens all the time--but he's the oldest."

If that happened today the man would be in the slammer. He sang all the way home. That's my John Triggs story.

My Dad's Father was a stern fellow from the North of Ireland. I know only that he stopped bidding Good Day to a former friend when the friend married a Protestant! I was shocked when my Dad told me that story-Dad said,"Mick, I guess he was a bigot." Got that right.

Love the song "Emmigrant Eyes" especially by Danny Doyle.
"When I look in my Grandfather's Emmigrant Eyes-I see starting with nothing And working hard all of his life."

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Gulliver
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 09:27 PM

Maternal grandfather joined the Dublin Fusiliers and ended up in the Boer War--Colenso, Ladysmith, etc. When demobbed he became a telephone technician and at the end of WW1 was awarded a medal for some mysterious "services in connection with the war". He sold the medal for a plug of tobacco.

Paternal grandfather was also in the Dublin Fusiliers (his father had also been in the army) and served in India and Egypt before being sent to France during WW1. He was involved on the medical side of things. After the war he was part of the Expeditionary Force sent to Archangel in Russia to fight the Red Army. He was into music, played piano, fiddle, whistle, mouth-organ, etc. so I know where my musical interests come from!

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: GUEST,IB48
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 12:03 PM

Both grandfathers were killed in second world war.Wish i could have spent some time with them,they were both such great characters.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Mickey191
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 12:15 PM

This great thread brings to mind Kevin McGrath's "Before you slipped away." When I read that - I always think of my Dad-(also a Grandfather of one.)

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Grimmy
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 12:39 PM

It's great to read about all these folks and what they got up to. There seem to be quite a few 'characters' amongst our forebears. And no, fat B****rd, all families are interesting - even the 'uninteresting' ones.

Here in the UK, it's been estimated that 75% of surnames have become extinct since 1250 - wars, disease, famine, disasters (natural and man-made) have taken their toll over the centuries. We are all special.

For those of English ancestry, there are some free genealogy resources out there:

eg Free BMD Search (incomplete but growing)

Birth, marriage and death indexes are also being added per county:

eg Lancashire, Cheshire to name but two.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 05:38 PM

Grimmy, thanks for the links. What, may I ask, does "BMD" stand for?
Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 05:49 PM

Something else folks might be interested in, along the genealogy lines: Free DNA testing for a genealogical database. Apparently, if they match yours with someone else's they will put you in touch with them. If you want a full report, you have to buy it from a professional company for which the original company offers discount coupons. Interesting to say the least.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Mickey191
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 06:24 PM

HI Kat, I was puzzled myself about BMD-till I reread Grimmy's post. Birth, Marriage, & Death. I couldn't get the site to link. Probably a webtv thing.

I can see the DNA thing will cause some people some nightmares. Will make the lawyers rich.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 08:12 PM

BMD - I thought it was Billions of Moms and Dads.

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 10:46 PM

LOL, meself.

Thansk, Mickey, duh, I shoulda figured that one out!

Subject: RE: BS: Our Grandpas
From: Grimmy
Date: 27 Apr 07 - 05:38 AM

Births, Marriages and Deaths - or as it's known in the trade: 'Hatchings, Matchings and Despatchings'.