None of my great-grandparents were alive when I was born, to my knowledge. I could be wrong, though, but I certainly never met any of them. My daughter (and daughter-to-come-soon), too, will not know any of her great grandparents, although she came close (if she was born about 5 or 6 years earlier, she would have been around for two of them.)
My great-grandparents were long gone by the time I was born . . . as well as two of my grandparents. But the remaining two (maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother) married each other the year I was born.
My parents were in their mid to late forties when I was born so not much chance of this, my oldest brother is 20 years older than me and my grandparents were born between 1903 and 1913. I did meet all my grandparents but the ones on my dad’s side I didn’t know very well.
None of my grandparents were alive when I was born, much less great-grandparents.
The trend to have children later in life definitely has some downsides and this is a big one. I am the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family born to fairly young parents so I got to to have irreplaceable experiences with my grandparents and great-grandparents that my younger siblings and cousins didn’t. I definitely pick up some resentment for that fact alone from the younger members of the family but there is nothing I can do about it.
My own daughters only have one great-grandparent left - my maternal grandfather. He is 90 but has a girlfriend 30 years his junior that he still bangs as he loves to tell everyone in ear shot. He also still drives and runs his own real estate brokerage company and has two much older sisters in reasonable health. His own grandfather was one of the last surviving Civil War soldiers that died in 1949 despite doing nothing whatsoever to foster that longevity except for a strict regimen whiskey and cigars every day. My grandfather is hysterical to talk to on the phone because it is 1960 all day, every day to him and him will say absolutely anything that pops into his corrupted head. He is good to my daughters though and may be around for at least another decade and maybe much longer.
No. I know almost nothing about them.
Never met any of my g’grandparents - the last of them died around seven years before I was born. (I missed two of them by over fifty years.)
One grandmother and one grandfather died when I was eight, but I never met either of them; the other two grandparents died 25+ years before I was born.
But my mother was 39 when I was born, and my father 42, so…
Out of 4 sets of great-grandparents, I knew my mother’s father’s parents. I was still pretty young when my g-g-father died, although I do remember that he had a rather distinct odor, mostly comprised of tobacco I think. I was a teenager when my g-g-mother died, so I spent more time around her, but by then she was in her 90’s and didn’t do much except to complain about how she couldn’t see any more, so I can’t say I knew her well. My poor grandmother had to take care of her for several years until she died.
None, though two at least did live long enough where I could have known them. In one case, the family had sort of drifted apart while the other one was institutionalized and kept secret.
Only a grandparent; no greats on either side of the clan.
I knew my mother’s mother’s mother fairly well.
I met my father’s mother’s father a few times, but really didn’t know him.
5 of the other 6 were dead before I was born.
The final one - my father’s mother’s mother - was alive until I was in my teens, but I never met…I’m not sure of the circumstances, but I think it was connected to her separation from my great grandfather, who she wouldn’t divorce for religious reasons.
I only knew my grandparents on my mother’s side. In fact my mother didn’t even know my dad’s parents. Great-grandparents were right out, they died many many decades before I was born.
Five of my eight great-grandparents were still living when I was born. I only remember my father’s father’s parents, who I met frequently, due to everyone living in the same town. Oddly, though my father’s mother’s father lived until I was twelve, and was also local, I have no recollection of at all, and as far as I know, we never met. There must be some backstory there that has never been shared with me.
My mother’s side were in Western Canada, and I never met them.
I knew none of my great-grandparents, and in fact didn’t even met either of my grandfathers : one died before I was born, and I was deliberatly kept away from the other (in fact told he had died too, which wasn’t true), because my father resented him (for good reasons).
In fact, when I think of it, I know essentially nothing about any of my great-grandparents except for the parents of my maternal grandmother (because I was raised by this grandmother hence knew about her family). This great-grandfather died in 1945, 20 years before I was born, and this greatgrandmother died in…1902!
Isn’t that incest in some states?
I counted my mother’s stepfather’s mother, whom I knew as “great grandmother”. I’m thinking a stepparent link should count because it’s really the generation that is significant – and besides, when I knew her (a faint memory) I didn’t know that stepfather wasn’t a biological father.
By the way, my paternal great grandfather, the one from whom I inherited my last name, would be 167 years old this year. He was born in 1849. Still knowing him would be quite a thing.
Hard to use your checkboxes: People have four female great-grandparents and four male ones. Seems like it would have been more useful to break your survey up into “on your Dad’s side” vs “on your Mom’s side” at a minimum and perhaps Dad’s dad’s folks versus Dad’s mom’s folks (& etc) as well.
Anyway, of the eight of them, five were not alive any more when I was born; another died when I was two and I don’t remember meeting her at all. That leaves two. I have fuzzy memories of being taken to visit my dad’s dad’s dad when he was in the hospital but it was an event not a relationship. The final one was a recurrent (if intermittent) fixture in my life up until I was a teenager. She was my dad’s mom’s mom.
Not that I am aware of although I could be wrong. If they were brother-in-law and sister-in-law and since they were long over the age of majority it would be like any other marriage. Something like a widow marrying her late husbands brother (her brother-in-law). It may raise a few eyes but not nearly as much as a couple “steps” (step-brother and step-sister for example) getting married.