General Chat

Maternal Grandparents: Nanna: Nanny, bar maid / hotel staff (worked on bar and cleaning in the hotel) Granddad: Carprnter - Patten maker (made pattens for mine machinary, later did piece work in wood) [Never did national service as stone deaf in one ear from birth) Paternal Grandparents: Nanny: Nanny (from about 14, early WW2), Army girl (never said what but I know she served in north of England somewhere), Buffet Hand (not bad given she was barried before she turned 24) Grandpa: Above ground collery worker, Army (?egypt?), Tire Fitter.

Thank you to everyone who contributed all the occupations are so varied and interesting a lot of course of a bygone age wish i had lived in those times June xx.

Mine on my Dads side was Hatters or mill workers.

OOH Shades of Alice in Wonderland June x

But on my Mums side they was canal or waterman ... ( water ever that was lol )

Those people were very colourful characters there boats and every day things were painted so brightly and they worked so hard how exciting to have ancestors like that June .

Hayley my family on my mothers side i found worked on the docks in Liverpool and some of the books i read give you some idea how it was a very hard life like a lot of occupations June ..

I know my GGreatfather was working at the docks at Trafford Park . He fell off the dock in between the ship and dock and was crushed to dealth my GGrandmother was pregnant at the time. I remember my Gran telling me that when i was little . I have found the newspaper report and inquest papers for it.

Thats where Ifound my first reallie June when I started my hobby.

I knew nil re my mums side due to her leavin when i was 2 so i have found out what a big Irish family i have June ..

Hi June My maternal g/father was an engineer what kind I don't know but it sounds good. My dad's father worked in the docks until a crane fell on him leaving him with horrific head injuries for which he was paid £1000 in compensation that would be in the 1940's so don't know what it would be worth now and I don't really think you would want to live then would you too much hard work I would think Nolls

Nolls i know re the hard work but i find the times so interesting and a lot of my an d other peoples familys died young but it,s the values fashions everything Oh dear are we still friends ? jUNE XX

Got to go now the dreaded housework calls Bye June xx.

My maternal grandfather worked for London Transport (London Omnibus), firstly as a bus conductor and retiring as an inspector. Interestingly, since doing my tree I have found that his father and grandfather were both house painters/decorators, which explains my Grandad's obsession with perfect paint finishes and preparation. I do wonder why he didn't follow in their footsteps though. My maternal grandmother was a dressmaker. Her father and grandfather were both tailors and, as far back as I have traced so far, all males were in the textile industry and the earliest were weavers. My paternal grandfather worked for the Canadian Post Office, ending as a Postmaster just before his death. I don't know what my paternal grandmother's occupation was before she married, but her parents were farmers so I assume she worked on the farm. Her parents emigrated from Monmouthshire, where her father worked for Great Western Railway, to Canada, where he homesteaded and became a farmer. It's hard to imagine the hardships they went through in the early 20th Century. My G Grandmother had been brought up in a middle class family in Worcestershire where her father had his own business and then for her to endure a ship's passage to Canada with 3 young children (G Grandfather had emigrated 2 years earlier) is amazing. Then to have to live in the wilds of Saskatchewan, Canada in little more than a log cabin ekeing out an existance from the land. I think she is the ancestor that I have most sympathy and admiration for and I would love to have met her. Sue xx

My paternal grandad was a shoemaker (like his father) until WW1 when he joined the Lifeguards and lost the top of his thumb and nail at the Battle of the Somme. After the war he stayed in London and joined the Police although from what I can tell his work was mainly traffic control. My paternal grandma worked as a housemaid for a family in Mayfair until she got married and then became a housewife and mum to my dad. My maternal grandad was a writer until WW1 when he joined the Royal Engineers and later the Royal Flying Corps, he went back in during WW2 aged nearly 50 and became a Colonel. Between the wars and after he was a Company Accountant. My maternal grandma worked in a Drapers Shop and was a dressmaker. Carolyn

One was an engine driver ( supposedly drove the Flying Scotsman but need poof of that) - the other wandered from job to job caretaking, off jobs etc. neither grandma worked. Kate

Just had a fascinating conversation for the first time with a cousin of my dad's - she is 87 - and told me loads about my stonemason grandfather and the family. Am bubbling over with it all! Liz

Paternal grandfather - corporation labourer (gravedigger) Maternal grandfather - steward on board liners (including Olympic) but he had to retire early because of ill-health. One grandmother worked as a tram conductor during WW1, the other earned as much as she could taking in washing etc.

Paternal grandfather: his marriage cert states 'postman', but I have found no record of him in London Postal Workers Archives, so I'll go along with the 'builders labourer' which is on my father's birth cert. Paternal grandmother: shop assistant somewhere at Oxford Circus, then went down the road to work at Selfridges, Oxford Street in the haberdashery dept. Maternal grandfather: coal miner. Maternal grandmother: worked in a jam factory, and later as a shop assistant.

Once again thank you such a lot of different jobs i bet there are so many stories to tell and Sue Langley Vale my Gran went out to Canada in 1913 and was married there had 4 children my dad was one of them June xx.