My story as well. For the older Dopers (I’m 70) it’s going to be the norm. My parents were early 20th Century, but my mother had a couple sisters born in the 1800’s.
My wife’s grandfather fought in the Civil War.
All my grandparents were born before 1900.
Two of mine were born in the 1880s, so well short of the furthest back date so far. (My other two were born in the 1910s.)
My paternal grandmother was born in 1900, which is technically the 19th century (as the OP noted).
A few of her kids are still living, too. They’re hardly ancient, with the youngest in his early 70’s.
My paternal grandfather was born in 1890 and died in 1984; and my paternal grandmother was born in 1900 and died in 1990. They were married for 65 years.
My maternal grandfather was born in the early 1880s; he was raised in an orphanage and was never sure of his birth year. He died long before I was born. Grandma was born in '03. My paternal grandparents were born in '14 and '15; Grandma will be 97 this year and is still kicking.
I have no idea about my grandparents. But I would like to point out something I find amazing about people born in that time.
When they were a young child, it was before the Wright brothers made their historic flight, and heavier than air flight was just a dream. And many of them lived long enough to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
That’s crazy, isn’t it?
Indeed, it is. In all fairness, though, I am beginning to suspect that their offspring’s generation (mine!) may have similar things said about us in another 20-30 years, as we’re dying off. The transportation advances of those years will be compared with the information advances in our times.
Who knows what the next field of rapid advance in a lifetime may be?
I will continue to hunt around - my paternal grandfather was born in 1874, and while I can’t prove it yet, I strongly suspect that all four of my grandparents were born in the 19th century. Off to search through some family records…
Paternal grandmother, 1897. Paternal grandfather, a few years before that. Maternal grandparents, not sure.
My grandfather was already an old man when I was born. He married later than usual and I am the youngest son of a youngest son. He had seen so much in his life and kind of shut down to it as he got older. He refused to believe in the moon landings. A lot of my friends had fathers in Vietnam and grandfathers in WWII. My father was in the marines in WWII and my grandfather was too old to be drafted in WWI. My grandfather was born in 1882, my father in 1927 and I was born in 1967.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1896.
All four of my grandparents were born in the 19th century, one grandmother in 1875, both grandfathers in 1878, and the other grandmother in 1880. They died between 1958 and 1963.
I was born in 1981, my grandads were 1889 and 1899. One of them lived until I was a toddler, the other died a week before I was born.
If one of President John Tyler’s grandsons posted on this board, he could outdo us all: His grand-dad was born in the 18th century (1790, IIRC).
All four of my grandparents were born between 1890 and 1898. I knew three of them quite well (the one born in 1892 died when I was a week old–“one look at you did the old lady in,” said my father).
My maternal grandfather was born in March, 1885. Grandmother was born in 1890. My mom’s still active at 89 next month.
Some of the amazing things my father saw over the course of his lifetime (1918 - 2006) include the memory of the day when the farm got electricity. He was 8 years old, and he and his older brother were coming home from town with the (horse drawn) milk wagon when he first saw the glow of the brand new yard light. He thought it must be a fire…
He also got his Doctorate in Animal Genetics at a time when that meant going through farmer’s records to determine what were dominant traits and what were recessive traits. He lived to see the mapping of the Human Genome in 2003…
All four, the oldest (paternal grandfather) in 1882.
And his oldest child (my aunt) turns 99 this year.
Would somebody like to start the thread that deals with the more pressing issue: “Who has/had parents born in the 19th Century?”
My mother was close with 1908.
Got to be some older Dopers who can beat that.