Oldest person you feel you are connected to

[snowman]

Who is the oldest person you FEEL a connection to? Someone who you know who actually knew that person, first hand.

I knew my g grandmother, for at least 26 years. She was 95 when she died.

Of course she knew my gg grandfather (it was her father and mother) and my grandfather, and father. My ggg grandfather was born in 1825, died 1916. My g grandmother was born in 1890. So my g grandmother knew my ggg grandfather for 26 years. (note my ggg grandfather did not have kids until he was 50 years old!)

Consequently I feel a direct, personal, connection to my ggg grandfather, a connection going back to 1825! GGG grandad was a land speculator. He paid $300 not to fight in the civil war. I can go to the local county office of land records and find him and his wife buying and selling land from 1850 to the 1900's.

I think its very interesting to FEEL the connection to people of yesterday. I can trace back over 1500 years, my ancestry, but I can FEEL the connection back to the mid 1800's.

My parents, grandparents were Norman Rockwell people of America. Farmers, until my parents. Visits to grandparents with horse drawn sleighs at thanksgiving, Christmas (when I was young). My one grandmother was born in a log cabin, yes a real log cabin in upstate NY. Yet the other side of the family was in metropolitan NYC in the 1700's.

Just wondering--- How to you feel your connection to the past generations? What does this connection make you feel about where you are today? How does American history connect to you, personally?

[tabs]

My Great Grand Dad was Rasputin.

[RKC]

My grandfather was born in 1902 and lived to be 101. He made connections real for me in 1998 or 1999 between the internet bubble and the late 1920's, and made the actual scope of Sept. 11 clear when he compared it to the much larger disasters and sacrifices of WWI or WWII. It was nice to know early on that we'd get through OK.

He grew up in Sacramento and met his wife in La Jolla, CA in the early 1920's, and told me stories of cross country journeys on the "roads" of the time.

My grandmother grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, the youngest of 9, and moved to La Jolla when her dad retired. She worked in LA briefly, and hiked the same trails in Yosemite and Tahoe as I did some 70 years later. She told me stories of her father and family that reached back to the years just after the Civil War.

And I took part in the La Jolla Rough Water Swim a couple of years ago because both she and her dad were in the first one, and I was turning 40, and it had a nice complete feel to it.

I can feel the reality of time to the late 1800's or early 1900's - when Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain were famous, and Fitzgerald and Steinbeck were being born and growing up. Now my children are hearing my stories and will probably be able to feel time back to the 1920's. Cool stuff.....

[Jeff Higgins]

My dog. He was 110 to you and me.

[M.D. Holloway]

My Father - he is 83. My grandfathers died before I was born - they actually both died when my parents were very young.

[id10t]

My grandparents on my mothers side were both 98 when they died, less than a year apart. 2 years ago...

My grandparents on my fathers side were in their 80s when they died, but that was 20 years ago....

[KFC911]

My great-grandmother was 102 when she died and was known to split kindling wood at the age of 100. I was very young, but I can still remember her playing "ball" with "us youngins" out in the yard. She was born during the civil war, so of course (although, not directly from her), I still heard first hand about them "damn yankees" . On a similar note, I'm going to a good friend of mine's 90th birthday party Wednesday night. A "blues loving" 90 year old black lady who still gets on the dance floor and will travel to events like Jazzfest solo...they just don't make 'em like that anymore . I love to sit and talk with her about her life experiences...

[tabs]

Yep Grandpa Gregory told me the family history before he died...that his Dad was Rasputin and that he was conceived during a night that Rasputin was banging 7 ladies from the Czars court. That he had a slong 12 inchs, thick as a cucumber and was able to keep it rock hard allnight long. GGP drank prodigious quanitys of Vodka and claimed that the Beluga Cavier was the reason he was able to keep it up. GGP met his end when he was invited to a party by a couple of young Russian noblemen. They drank and drank giving Rasputin some cakes that were full of aresnic finally passing out..he then threw up the aresnic laced cakes, the nobels then proceeded to shot GPP several times, but that still didn't do it so they beat on him alittle. Put him in a sack and dumped him in the river. When they found ole GPP Rasputins body he was half out of the bag. During the Revoulution GGGranny fled Russia with young Gregory coming to the US. Gpa Gregory had Mother and the rest is history.

[jluetjen]

I've been researching the family history and right now the oldest person that I feel a personal connection with is my Father's-Father's-Father. We have some documents from Australia (long story) where he lived around 1900 that describe some personal details about him and his personality. I never met his son (my Grandfather), but my Dad is still around at 85. I just had lunch with him!

On my Mom's side, her uncle (the elder brother of my Grand Mother, who I also never met) lived to be over 100. I was lucky to know him. He was a character -- trained as a teacher, but he became an invester prior to WWI. After serving in WWI (German Army), and losing almost everything after the war, he became a teacher again, and started rebuilding his holdings. By WWII he was well off again, but lost it all after the war. He became a teacher once again until he could build up his portfolio again, at which point he spent the rest of his life reviewing his stocks in the AM, and playing chess in the PM. He did everything "wrong". He never married, he smoked, drank a shot of schnapps after dinner every day and never really had "a job" except for his occasional periods as a teacher. And then he lived to be over 100 and never lost a marble in his life. Go figure!!!

[jluetjen]

Originally Posted by tabs

Yep Grandpa Gregory told me the family history before he died...

Tabs, you reminded me of this shtick from Robin Williams...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Probably tabs. I hear he's an old fart.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by KC911

...On a similar note, I'm going to a good friend of mine's 90th birthday party Wednesday night. A "blues loving" 90 year old black lady who still gets on the dance floor and will travel to events like Jazzfest solo...they just don't make 'em like that anymore . I love to sit and talk with her about her life experiences...

Someone posted this on another site spreading the word about the birthday party. Here's my friend "Hurricane Helen" reviving Mitch Woods ("Rocket 88" fame) at 4 am in the piano bar on a "blues cruise" several years ago...

[Superman]

I know a woman who just turned 92. Her pace would be difficult for a 16 year-old to keep up with.

[Zeke]

So if I understand the thread, one needs to feel connected to someone through another. Sorry, the only one that could have connected me was of too much interest to me to allow me to go beyond. Oh, I got a lot of insight to my elders through my aunt, but she was far too fascinating to spend a much thought to whom she referred to. The interesting thing about all this is she repudiated the family and went her own way. She lived in the same building as Dave Brubeck and all that gang. Married a guy who played trumpet in the swing bands and jazz groups. Talk about hip. They're mostly gone now except Brubeck himself.

[sketchers356]

I feel connected to God. That guy is pretty old.

[Seahawk]

My wifes mother married an older man after her divorce. Turns out he was a junior at Yale when WWII broke out. He tried navy flight but was bounced out of training in, I think, Glenview, Ill.

They sent him to PT boats. He spent the next three years in the slot and other environs. He is a gentle, proud man in his late 80's.

When he talks of his experiences, he is usually the butt of the joke, some humor sculpted around ordeals few of us will ever understand.

We did get a few toddies in our belt last T Day...went for a drive and I got to hear about the real South Pacific.

He'll be here Thursday.

[snowman]

Its just interesting to get a "feel" for what it was like, way back whenever, before our own time. It helps provide real prospective to today.