# Earlist Birthdate of Person You Met? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199 "2012-01-02T23:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/61 "2012-01-04T11:46:04Z")
Maternal great grand parents came from a family of 8, born between 1868 and 1880. Five of them lived to be over 90 (two made it to 100) and were around until my late teens. Aunt Lizzie (b 1874) even gave me precise instructions on how I should vote in 1977. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/62 "2012-01-04T12:43:16Z")
Paternal grandfather was born in 1892. It’s possible that some of the old folks I encountered in their church when I was a kid were older. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/63 "2012-01-04T18:02:33Z")
I met my great-grandfather some time in the 1950s and he was over 100 years old then, so he must have been born in the 1850s. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/64 "2012-01-04T19:26:28Z")
My grandfather who was born in 1909. I was born when he was 77 years old - I was born late into an old family and all my great-grandparents had already passed. ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/65 "2012-01-04T19:33:18Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I think the oldest person I’ve met was a World War I veteran I interviewed in 1986. Both of my grandfathers were born in 1899 and served in World War I. When I lived in France in the 1970’s a retired French General lived in the house behind ours; he had served with DeGaulle in WW 2 and led an infantry charge at Verdun (probably a lieutenant or similar rank at the time). He was in his 90’s at that point, so my best guess is that he must have been born in the early 1880’s, possibly a little earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/66 "2012-01-04T20:08:22Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > While they didn’t meet them, I’ll mention that there are a couple of Dopers who are the grandchildren of Confederate veterans, both due to men becoming fathers older than normal. That’s my Dad. His grandfather (b. 1843) was in the 43rd NC Infantry (fought at Gettysburg, then stayed with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia until Appamattox), and then married a much younger woman in 1894. His father, my Grandfather, was born in 1896 and fought in WW I (well, if you count being on a troop train to the Front on 11/11/18 as fighting), and then my Dad was 3rd child of 4, b. 1937. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/67 "2012-01-04T20:43:26Z")
Looks like the theoretical earliest date is about 1800, if a current supercentenarian had met another supercentenarian when quite young. But getting it back to the 1850’s here is no mean feat! ---
**Author:** ![Satellite\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Satellite\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satellite_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/68 "2012-01-06T09:04:43Z")
I remember visiting my great-grandmother, in the seniors home, when I was a young child. I just did some quick research, and it seems she was born in 1888, and passed away in 1982, when I was 8 or 9. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/69 "2012-01-06T09:56:31Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Maternal great grand parents came from a family of 8, born between 1868 and 1880. Five of them lived to be over 90 (two made it to 100) and were around until my late teens. Aunt Lizzie (b 1874) even gave me precise instructions on how I should vote in 1977. Confused. Did Aunt Lizzie make it to 103 or did she give you instructions 3 years before the election? The oldest I recall is my grandfather who was born in 1877 (Boer War veteran). Of course there was a myriad of relatives I later met as a child and can’t remember who they were or their ages. Everyone was old then. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/70 "2012-01-06T10:25:10Z")
Yes, Aunt Lizzie was 103 when she told me not to vote for that “terrible man” Gough Whitlam! Never quite worked out why she thought I would. ---
**Author:** ![relesabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@relesabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/relesabe)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199/71 "2012-01-07T22:18:43Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Looks like the theoretical earliest date is about 1800, if a current supercentenarian had met another supercentenarian when quite young. > > But getting it back to the 1850’s here is no mean feat! In another thread about earliest b-date of someone in a motion picture, a War of 1812 veteran’s 1905 funeral was filmed. He was born in 1800 (still 18th century). He had a great granddaughter who was born in 1902 and lived until 2002. Assuming that she was introduced to her gg-dad, which seems plausible since they overlapped for 3 years, a person who had met someone born in the 18th century was still with us in the 21st century. Still not completely out of the question that such a person is even now alive… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earlist-birthdate-of-person-you-met/608199.md?page=3)