Doing the math, they were quite young when married. I’ll bet people said it wouldn’t last!
One of my house guests tonight is 98. I forgot to ask her how old her son is, though. Technically, I guess it doesn’t count for the OP, because I don’t know her son…but I thought I’d mention it here anyway 
I have a six-generation picture of my family, too, starting with my great-grandmother mentioned in the OP–but she was a spry 97 or 98 at the time.
Ah. Presumably, Pratchett stole that bit from Bill Speidel, founder of the Seattle Underground City tours (and author of the book Sons of the Profits, about the founders of Seattle). I took the tour in 1979, and the joke was well-worn even then.
Basically, the city needed to raise money fast after a major fire in the early 1900s. The city fathers took a look at the census records and saw that there were some 800 women listing their occupation as “seamstress”. A flourishing garment trade had grown up under their noses, and they had never noticed! They quickly instituted a tax on sewing machines, and then found that there were none in the city or surrounding area.
So, the situation was dire - the city was burned to the ground, broke, and its major industry was flat on its back!
(I took the tour again two or three years ago. They are still using the joke.)
Pardon the “pun” raising this “old” thread but as near as I can tell, this record was broken on May 27, 2016.
As far as I had been able to find, the oldest person with a living parent was Kathryn Sullivan whose birthday was November 17, 1903. Her mother, Sarah Knauss died on December 30, 1999 and daughter Kathryn was 96 years and 43 days old when her mother died.
Violet Brown of Jamaica is 116 years old, born March 10, 1900. Her son Harland Fairweather was born on April 15, 1920, making him 96 years and 44 days old on Saturday, May 29/16 breaking the Sullivan/Knauss record.
The joke is based on reality, though. Example of reality: having whores register and take the official course to be “food handlers”, having them register as self-employed part-time cooks at the club where they work or at a friendly bar, and voila, your local whores now have access to UHC and get a complete checkup at least once a year. And if you find a place where a lot of women work and nobody has the course, you can initiate an investigation on “public health” terms when what you’re actually trying to verify is if the workers are there voluntarily or not.
Further update.
My SIL’s grandfather passed away last week - her older sister turned 35 a couple of months ago. So that “record” is frozen.
My neighbor’s father passed away about a year ago (she is 67 now, so she was 66 then). OTOH, there’s an old couple that used to live down the block from me - they recently moved in with their children, but they’re both still alive, and their oldest son is now in his late 60s with both parents still alive.
Further update:
The SIL who had 4 living grandparents until a couple of years ago now doesn’t even have 2 living parents - her father was a victim of the covid pandemic.
The old couple who used to live down the block from me both passed away in the last year or so.
On a happier note, my nephew had a baby a few weeks ago - that baby has 4 living grandparents (not unusual for a baby) but also 8 living great-grandparents.
John McCain died 2 years ago and his mother is still alive at 108. She has another son who is 78. Her daughter died last year at 85. At McCain funeral some people thought his mother was a sister , they figured at 81 his mother had died.
Most likely Robert “Bob” Butz. He was born on September 27th, 1925, and when his grandmother Sarah Knauss died at 119 on December 30th, 1999, he would have been 74. Bob lived to be 84; he was the son of Kathryn Sullivan (nee. Knauss) who was 96 when her mother died and 101 at the time of her own death.
It’s probable that there have been older grandchildren in history, although records were not kept. Frédéric Billot, the only grandchild of Jeanne Calment died in a car accident in 1963. He would have been 70 at the time of her death, when she was 122.
Grandchildren over 60 are rare because both the parent and the grandparent need to have children at a young age and also live a long time- and in any case here a grandmother is most likely as women live longer than men.
Theoretically, dates for example, if a woman was born in 1890, and she had a child in 1909 when she was 19, then if that child had a child when they were 19 (in 1928) she would become a grandmother at age 38. Supposing this woman lived to be 115, in 2005, her child would be 96 and her grandchild 77.
It’s very rare for people to have kids much younger than this, but in an extreme example, if a woman were to have kids at 16 and then her child have kids at 16 as well, she would be a grandmother at 32 and thus at 115 her grandchild would be 83.
Hope that helps – I don’t think you’re going to have any luck finding any people older than Bob Butz unless somebody makes it to 125 and has living grandchildren.
I’m 61 years old, My Father is 82 years old now and his mother/my grandmother is alive at 101 so that means I’m 61 with a living grandparent and my grandmother is alive with a son 82 years old which is weird to think about.
If your grandmother were to live another 14 years, to be 115, you would set a world record. Pretty incredible to be at or near retirement age and still have a grandparent… I’ve still got a long way to go.
Hi History Person and Hello to everybody: I can answer your questions:
61 years and a living mom and a living granny, wow, that´s amazing!
I´m a member of the 110 Club, a forum who is continuously reporting about longevity (Supercentenarians) The oldest verified person ever was
Jeanne Calment (*21st Feb. 1875) (+04th Aug. 1997) (122 years, 164 days)
The oldest person ever with a living granny was 84.
the oldest persons with a living parent:
Hello everybody! That´s a list of the oldest living persons with a living parent. (90+). Note the work hasn´t been finished yet!
- Willie Rogers (*27th Oct. 1908) (97 years,109 days) at the time of his mother´s death (+21st Oct. 2008) (99 years, 360 days)
Bettie Wilson (*13th Sept. 1890) (+13th Feb. 2006) (115 years, 153 days)
Source:
https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/1155 … lie-rogers
-
Harland Farweather (*15th Apr. 1920) (+19th Apr. 2017) 97 years, 4 days (at the time of his own death)
Violet Brown (*10th Mar. 1900) (15th Sept. 2017) (117 years, 189 days) -
Kathryn Sullivan (*17th Nov. 1903) ( 96 years, 43 days at time of her mother´s death) (+21st Jan. 2005) (101 years, 65 days)
Sarah Knauss (*24th Sept. 1880) (+30th Dec. 1999) (119 years, 97 days) -
Esther Maria Rodriguez Sarmiento (*22nd Aug. 1923) (96 years, 25 days at the time of her mother´s death
-
Joe Weaver (*07th Apr. 1921) (93 years, 364 days at the time of his mother´s death) (09th Sept. 2008) (97 years, 155 days)
Gertrude Weaver (*04th July 1898) (+06th Apr. 2015) (116 years, 276 days) -
SC has to stay anonymous: Daughter was 92 years, when she died.
-
Florence Johnson (*06th June 1910) 91 years, 280 days (at her mother´s death) (+05th Apr. 2003) (92 years, 303 days)
Delvina Dahlheimer (*31st Dec. 1888) (+13th Mar. 2002) (113 years, 72 days) -
Mary Russo (*17th Aug. 1921) (91 years, 122 days) at the time of her mother´s death) (+16th Dec. 2020) (99 years, 121 days)
Dina Manfredini (*04th Apr. 1897) (+17th Dec. 2012) (115 years, 257 days) -
Margaret Bates (*18th Sept. 1923) (91 years, 119 days) at the time her mother´s death (+25th Nov. 2017) (94 years, 68 days)
Ethel Lang (*27th May 1900) (+15th Jan. 2015) (114 years, 233 days) -
Wanda E. Proctor Allen (*17th Mar. 1903) (+01st Oct. 2003) (90 years, 188 days) (at her own death)
Elena Slough (*04th July 1889) (+05th Oct. 2003) (114 years, 93 days) -
Lorraine Mabel Dunham Rees (*13th Jan.1930) (*18th July 2020) (90 years, 187) at her own death)
Irene Dunham (*16th Dec. 1907) (+01st May 2022) (114 years, 136 days) -
Cecilia Gulczinsk(*04th Aug. 1918) (90 years, 124 days) (at the time of her mother´s death) (+14th Sept. 2020) (102 years, 41 days)
Catherine Hagel (*28th Nov. 1894) (+06th Nov. 2008) (114 years, 8 days) -
Eva Barney (*27th Nov. 1902) ( 90 years, 40 days at the time of her mother´s death) (+06th Apr. 2009) (106 years, 130 days)
Nina Rust (*18th June 1881) (+06th Jan. 1993) (111 years, 202 days) -
Gabrielle Vaughan (*19th Mar. 1908) (90 years, 28 days at the time of her mother´s death) (+2004) exact date of death is unknown)
Marie Louise Meilleur (*29th Aug. 1880) (+16th Apr. 1998) (117 years, 230 days) -
Daughter of Ana Vela Rubio (*10th Dec. 1927) (90 years, 5 days) at the time of her mother´s death
Ana Maria Vela Rubio (*29th Oct. 1901) (+17th Dec. 2017) (116 years, 47 days)
My grandmother was 58 when her grandfather died at the age of 94. He had one son who died at 67 and three grandchildren, one of whom he survived (lived to be 54). His daughter in law was 66 when her mother died at 90, and she died the next year. My great-grandfather’s brother lived to be 69, and died before his mother who lived to be 92, and had her eldest child when she was 17. Her second daughter was 72 when her mother died. Her third son was almost 71. An ancestor of mine was also 72 when her mother died at 86. My grandfather’s brother is already a great-great grandfather at 75, and his wife at 73. If she lives as long as her mother and father (both 90), or more so, let’s say 20 years until 94 then she will have a 77 year old daughter, a 74 year old son, nine grandchildren aged 60, 58, 54, 52, 50, 47, 47, 45, and 44, great grandchildren aged 42, 36, 30, 22, 20, and probably many more, as well as 22 year old great-great-grandson.