Did you ever in your early life meeting someone who was then alive who was born before 1900? (father, aunt)

[gentlearts]

Sure, all my grandparents and great grandparents were. My grandparents were born on the 1880s and 1890s. I knew 3 of them.

[Lodestar]

Both my grandmothers were alive when I was young and both had been born in the 1880s.

My maternal grandmother was born shortly after the family's arrival from Norway and she spent the first months of her life living in a mud dugout by the Blue Earth River. Her first home was a prairie soddy. I remember her telling me how much she disliked her chore of having to gather what she called buffalo grass and twist it into bundles to use for kindling. Not many trees here on the prairie in those days.

Her husband had a chain of barbershops in the area. Two of her sisters "flew the coop" and were flappers in the Twin Cities during the Twenties. LOL

My paternal grandmother first lived in a log cabin. She was the second wife of a widower with a child, married a second time to a widower with two children and then had three children of her own with a third husband. That was a common situation in those days. So there were "Yours," "Mine" and "Ours." After her last husband died she ran a boarding house for the unmarried schoolteachers and took orders for baking for the small town. She had the first flush toilet in town.

She had little time or inclination to sit around and be a grandmother but being in her home, with all its comings and goings, I learned a lot about what her life had been like.

The new automobile. I remember dad laughing at some of the old-timers of his youth actually talking to their cars like you would to a horse.

[whateverblahblahblah]

No. I had a great grandmother who was born in 1908. She died in 2000 at the age of 92.

As far as I know, I've never known anyone who was born before then.

[Patrolman]

Growing up, we had a neighbor that was born in 1862. One summer day in 1958, he and I sat on our front porch and he told me about celebrating America's centennial (1876!) and reading about Custer's Last Stand in the newspaper. That neighbor died the following summer at age 97.

[WRM20]

Let's see, the ones I knew and spoke to:
Paternal grandmother was born in 1892
Maternal great grandmothers born in 1886 and 1891
Maternal Great uncle born in 1883

Other bits and pieces
Maternal grandmother was born in 1910, her great grand father was born in 1828 and died in 1918
I have a picture of my mother in 1940 sitting on the lap of her great grandmother who was born in 1858.

There were probably others.

[jamies]

My grandparents were all born between the 1870's and 1890's. One grandmother lived to be 105, and died in the late 70's. I only met her once as a child.

My other grandmother was born in the 1890's and lived until the early 80's, about 96 years(?). She rode a horse and carried a pistol to a one room schoolhouse in the midwest. Later she owned an exclusive ladies clothing store in the oil country, and became VP of a moderate size company in the early 50's. She was one of the first women to break the glass ceiling. She retired at 82.

One time she and I were driving over one of the passes in Colorado and I was frustrated because of construction delays. Shortly after, my grandmother pointed out where back in 1916, their car broke an axle in the pass and they had to camp for three days until a horse team could be brought up to get the car. That shut me up.

Colorado didn't get their first paved road until 1918.

[nancy thereader]

.
Not long ago , President John Tyler's grandson died . He was raised in his grandfather’s hunting lodge;
his grandfather — John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States — was born in 1790.

That is not a typo — 1790, as in, during George Washington’s first term. Can you imagine ?

[kj1065]

Originally Posted by Freesponge

And otherwise do you know anyone who you met while alive who knew someone in person who was born before 1900? How far back can you go in the earliest born person you were ever able to ask a living person about who was living when that person was alive and knew that person in person ? I mean like asking your grandfather about his relationship with his grandfather , and remembering what he said to you about his grandfather … how far can you go back

My husband's grandparents were both born before the turn of the twentieth century, and I knew his grandmother, who died a few years after I married him. She was quite elderly, but she was able to talk about her parents and grandparents, who whose births predated the Civil War. Is that what you're asking?

[601halfdozen0theother]

I had a great aunt and uncle who both lived to be 101. They were born in 1893 and 1894 respectively. Both of them had very full and interesting lives, but never had children of their own. Since their brother, my grandfather, died in his 50s, they served as surrogate grandparents to all my cousins, and we knew them quite well.

Their own aunt also lived to 100. She was born in 1863. Since I was born in the late 1950s, I know that I met her before she died, but I have no memory of her.

My neighbors, when I was growing up, always had an elderly person in their home for whom they cared. I remember Dr. Jane, who must have been born around 1870. While she was living with them she wrote a book about getting her medical degree (around 1900) and going out West to be a doctor, which was quite unusual for a woman then. I wish I had a copy of her book now. Editing to add: OOOO - I just found it on Worldcat! Letters from Dr. Jane, by Jane English Dunaway. Now I'm going to order it via ILL! (the citation says she was born in 1879.)

[Sarahsez]

The oldest person I remember was born in 1901. She became a great aunt through marriage in her last few years. She knew my great grandparents who were born in 1882 and 1889.