Well, that’s the thing. Four great-grandparents, and I’m not sure how to answer. One is easy; he died before I was born. I think I visited the other great-grandmother regularly. I remember being at her house and seeing her daughter and granddaughter. I remember visiting her at the hospital and her offering part of her lunch. I remember my father spontaneously saying “let’s go see granny” on our way somewhere else only to swerve back onto the road instead of turn, because she’d just recently died. So I really do think she was a pretty regular part of my life, but she died when I was in kindergarten, so I don’t really remember her or her role.
The other set of great grandparents, I saw at relatives’ houses or family events several times a year (probably more when I was younger) until they died (both while I was middle-school-aged), but was not close with.
On my mother’s side, I met one great-grandmother at least a couple of times before she died when I was about 10, but I never really knew her. That was my maternal grandmother’s mother. I may have met my maternal grandfather’s father, my great-grandfather, at least once. Seem to remember meeting some friendly old codger when I was very young, and then I don’t recall ever seeing him again. Looking at my family records one day as an adult, I saw my grandfather’s father died when I was about six, so I’m thinking that could have been him. This was all in Arkansas.
On mt father’s side, my grandfather was born in 1876, so I sure never met his parents. My grandmother was born about 1900 but back East (like my grandfather). I think her parents were probably dead by the time I came along. At least, I never heard about them.
I was too young to remember meeting any of my great grandparents. I think, without looking it up, that about four of them were still alive when I was born. Three died before I was four. The last one died when I was 13, but lived too far away so we never visited. I have hazy memories of my great uncle visiting when I was tiny and I suspect she was one of the people with him.
I knew my great-grandmother on my father’s mother’s side very well. She lived next to my junior high and high school and I stayed with her before and after school for several years until I could drive. She passed away at 86 shortly after that. I was devastated because she was one of the most genuinely saintly people I have ever known.
I knew my great-grandmother on my father’s father’s side too but she died when I was 4 at the age of 94. She was a true pioneer woman born in 1883 and hard as nails. She only liked certain males including me and especially my father but she wanted nothing to do with other women. She was perfectly mentally competent until the day she died. She passed away on Christmas Day 1977 and the women in the family still claim she picked that day on purpose out of sheer spite.
I had some sort of great-parents on my mother’s side when I was very young but I couldn’t tell you the first thing about them unless I looked it up. That side of the family has always been more than a little cagey about family relationships. I just remember that one of them was the first funeral I ever went to when I was about 5. I had never met her and my parents didn’t like her at all so they thought that it would be a non-traumatizing way to teach me about funerals. It worked - I was a little confused at first but certainly not upset about it.
Same goes for me. Re grandparents (I know this thread is essentially about “greats”): maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother died relatively young, long before my time. Paternal grandfather died the year after I was born: if we ever met, there’s no way I could remember it. I knew, and remember, maternal grandmother: she died when I was seven or eight – regrettably, we didn’t like each other very much.
My mother’s mother’s grandparents were my only great-grandparents who were alive when I was born. They died when I was still pretty, but we lived near them, and I saw them at least once a month for the first several years of my life. My great-grandfather died first, and I mainly remember his funeral-- it was my first funeral. My great-grandmother died when I was only four, but I have very clear memories of her. She spoke Slovak to me, because she thought my mother should have been teaching it to me, and that it was much more useful that Yiddish. (She was probably right, because I lived in Russia when I was 10, and I’m sure my Slovak background helped me learn Russian, but I’ve always been very glad that my aunt taught me Yiddish.)
She seemed quaint and old-fashioned to me, but I guess she was worldly for her time-- she came to the US by herself, with just her youngest child (my grandmother) my great-grandfather having gone with the older two earlier (they had three more here), and became a US citizen shortly after women had the vote, so she barely missed any voting years.
My son just lost his only great-grandparent, my much-loved grandmother. He is more upset than I thought he would be, so I guess he remembers her good years when he was really little, or maybe he understands how sad my mother and I are. Also, he’s nine, and is coming to terms with the fact that his “grandpap,” who he loves, is not my father, and my father died 18 years ago. He has always known this, but he is just coming to fully understand it.
My step-great grandmother. I only remember two of my “grannies”, my siblings’ maternal grandmother, and my dad’s stepmom (and de facto mom). His (step)mom’s mom was alive and very lucid, and I grew up visiting her regularly with my granny, as well as she attending family meetings. She died a few days after her 100th birthday, and up to her last illness, had her wits with her. I would love to have her skin (always soft) and wits when I reach that age.
My mom’s paternal grandmother was alive when I was born, and I remember she died when I was around 7-8, but lived outside and I never got to meet her. My dad’s maternal grandmother died just a couple of months before I was born.
My granny has been somewhat close to some of her “great-grand kids”, and they know who she is. Both of my grandfathers lived long enough to meet many if not all of their great-grand kids, and my maternal grandfather was close to them (as he lived with my aunt, their grandma).
That happened to one set of my cousins. I always felt weird talking about my great-grandparents around them. Their mother has always been exceptionally kind and loving toward me, because she understands the value of family, and thinks it’s wonderful that her children have grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, since she never had any.
I knew my mother’s paternal grandparents very well. He died when I was nearly 12, and we lived with her the final year of her life so she wouldn’t be put in a home - she died when I was a freshman in college.
I was born in 1968. All four of my grandparents were born during the reign of Queen Victoria, both my mum and dad (and me I guess) being children of older-than-average parents. My grandads were both dead long before I was born, and both my gran and nana died when I was only little, and I have few memories of them. Of that whole generation of family I only knew my great-uncle Sandy, who was a hell of a guy - WWI veteran, International Brigades volunteer, PG Wodehouse lover, champion bowler, whisky drinker and pipe smoker. I only found about the first two things on that list because they were mentioned at his funeral.
The generation the OP is asking about only exist from my perspective as images in a few ancient and fading family photographs, like those of my mums christening in 1933, and there wasn’t a full house of her grandparents alive even then.
My great grandmother was alive when I was little. She lived with my grandmother; her father, my great-great grandfather had been in the confederate army.
I only knew one and she lived till a couple years after I was out of college. She lived ~10 miles away when I was growing up so I saw a fair amount of her growing up. She was pretty spry and with it till close to the end of her 101 years.
Difficult to answer as the choices imply only one of each. I had 3 great-grandmothers who were still alive when I hit my teens. Talked to one on the phone once, met one in person once, don’t recall the other at all. The fourth one died before I was born.
One great grandfather was alive when I was born. He died shortly afterward, within a couple of years or so. The other three didn’t overlap with me.
When I was born I was already down to 3 grandparents & 1 great-grandparent. My parents were relatively old when I was born compared to most folks of my era. And my parents were both born to much older than average parents for their era as well.
I met the great-grandparent once when I was around 6 on the occasion of her 100th birthday. I now recall the event, but all I recall of her was a mostly inert lump under a blanket in a wheelchair. She lived another 6 months.
I met the odd surviving grandparent once when I was about 9. She was 70+ and lived another 10ish years in a nursing home with slowly increasing senility.
I had a semi-annual visit with the other pair of grandparents from about age 6 when they were in their early 60s to my late 20s when they died a couple years apart in their 80s.
And now in my late 50s my parents have been gone for a decade or more as well as all but one of their siblings (my aunts / uncles). Smallish families & late births = not a lot of intergenerational contact.