What did your grandparents do?

[Dion]

There was some interesting comments made in the previous jobs threads.
I thought we should start a thread seeing what people's grandparents did.

My fathers parents were born and raised in Ireland. Now my grandfather got his first job by fighting in WW1 and spending time in a German POW camp where he was tasked with taking care of the horses and livestock. He came home with his gun and a helmet he got in an exchange with a German officer.

After the war ended he married my grandmother and they got on a boat and emigrated to Canada landing in Nova Scotia. From there they headed west where they ended up buying a piece of land in Southern Manitoba just outside of the town of Elgin. They started a farm and ran it for most of their lives before selling it and going into retirement in nearby Souris.

My mother's grandparents were born and died in Estevan Saskatchewan. Now my grandmother was a nurse in the Estevan Hospital for all of her career. She was also a devout Christian who took into her home, people and families that were down on their luck. Both were there to help the less fortunate in any way they could and were well respected in the community.

Now my grandfather worked for Saskatchewan Power for all of his career and helped my mother get her first job there. He was also a huge ham radio enthusiast who spent many a nights in his basement talking to people all over the world. As a wee lad I got to share in some of those conversations that I thought was cool.

[FlamesAddiction]

On my dad's side, they died during an ethnic cleansing blood bath at the end of WW2, so I never met them. From what I understand, they were subsistence farmers and didn't have professions. Farmed during the summer, then fished and made liquor in the winter to sell at local markets.

On my mother's side, my grandfather had a small mechanic business. My grandmother was a home maker and made/sold hats and costume jewelry on the side. Both served during WW2 as medics though. I found out fairly recently that my grandfather owned a small movie theatre business at one point and ran illegal gambling in the basement. At least that is what my older sister told me. I was pretty surprised because no one ever talked about it or mentioned it to me growing up.

[bizaro86]

My paternal grandfather was an equipment operator. He did a variety of stuff, mostly highway construction I think. He died before I was born. My grandmother on that side worked for the post office.

On my mother's side, my grandfather was a farmer/rancher. He was a pretty interesting guy, he had an agricultural engineering degree and loved to travel. He was also a professional musician and played piano gigs into his early 90s. My grandmother on that side was a teacher, until she got married in her 30s. Then she had kids and quit. She was quite into politics, and was a county Reeve for many years, as well as being a provincial party organizer. Many of my relatives on that side are in politics as a result.

[CaptainCrunch]

On my mom's side, My Grandpa was a farmer, he and his wife fled Germany when the Nazi Party rose, they settled in Alberta, and Grandpa found work farming until he could save enough to buy his own, and that's where the family name started (we suspect that they were jewish, and changed their name because they saw what was coming. My Grandma was a farm wife, stayed at home, helped around the farm and cooked and cleaned.



On my Dad's side, all we know is that he flew as a navigator in Lancaster Bombers in the War, wrote his wife a letter near the end of the war, saying I met someone else so long. My dad never saw him again. My Grandma on my dad's side died of Cancer, and my Dad became a orphan bouncing from situation to situation while fostering a hate for his brothers who stole his inheritance from his mom.

[djsFlames]

Both sides worked for the railway, one on train engines.
One side came to Alberta in the very early 1900s, the other came over from Poland and Finland following WWII.
Grandma "ran away" to Canada from not a great situation back home, found work in Red Deer as a nurse in the 50s.
Difficult early lives pretty much all around, grandpa was shot in the war and had friends with him that died, carried that with him pretty much the rest of his life.
Very grateful that they all persisted through what they had to experience and I hope in these (mildly) screwed up times we remember how great we still have it in comparison, and I sincerely hope that we don't ever go back to such extremes because of our differences.

[MoneyGuy]

Farmers and farmers

[bc-chris]

on my mom's side:
grandpa work for cn. i'm not sure what his job title was, but he was the main guy that got called when there was a derailment/bad stuff happened to a train. not sure if he was the head investigator or what?
grandma was a stay at home mom and her job was to run the house.


on my dad's side:
i know grandpa worked for cn for a while but he got pretty banged up in a car accident and had to change jobs. he and my grandma opened a corner store in steinbach, manitoba. i'm not sure what my grandpa did after the store. i know my grandma would pickup work at local restaurants in winnipeg to bring in some extra cash.

[peter12]

On my dad's side, Danish, lived in Copenhagen during the war. Farfar (Father's father) ran a large construction company there and did some work for the resistance - even hid a Jewish child on the night the Danes evacuated their Jewish population to Sweden. After the war, he and his family moved to Canada where he set up another large company. Things were hard at first, but the Jewish community found out there was a Dane doing construction and started giving him business as a thank you for all the Danes did during the war.

Farmor (Father's Mother) was a stay at home mom, loved to dress up, and made the best rye bread I will ever have. She pickled everything.

On my mom's side, big farming family, but my grandpa was a steam engineer at a bible college in a small Albertan town. His wife was also a stay-at-home mom, and after some hip surgery became an opioid addict. They estranged themselves from my parents early on in my life and I didn't really know them.

[btimbit]

On my mother's side, my Grandpa was a farmer. He was born in Copenhagen and fled Denmark during WW2 when he was in his early 20s with his brother after their parents were killed. He'll never talk about it, not even my mom knows the story. They came to Canada and eventually settled in SE Alberta and farms there to this day.
My grandmother was born in AB, was a driving instructor, then a stay at home farm wife

On my dads side, both grandparents were born in Saskatchewan. My grandma was a housewife with 5 kids, and my grandfather worked for Weatherford for 50 years, I'm not exactly sure what he did, but it's interesting when I go and work in towns in northenr AB and decades before he was in the same towns

[OMG!WTF!]

As far as I can tell they spent a lot of time convincing people they were Danish and not German even though their last name was Bismark. And that they were actually married before they had their first kid not after. And once all that was done they yelled at me a lot.

The other set were pioneers from Minnesota and I think that grandpa spent a lot of time stuck under a tipped over tractor. Grandma's job was terrifying people to religion.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by peter12

On my dad's side, Danish, lived in Copenhagen during the war. Farfar (Father's father) ran a large construction company there and did some work for the resistance - even hid a Jewish child on the night the Danes evacuated their Jewish population to Sweden. After the war, he and his family moved to Canada where he set up another large company. Things were hard at first, but the Jewish community found out there was a Dane doing construction and started giving him business as a thank you for all the Danes did during the war.

Farmor (Father's Mother) was a stay at home mom, loved to dress up, and made the best rye bread I will ever have. She pickled everything.

On my mom's side, big farming family, but my grandpa was a steam engineer at a bible college in a small Albertan town. His wife was also a stay-at-home mom, and after some hip surgery became an opioid addict. They estranged themselves from my parents early on in my life and I didn't really know them.

The Danish evacuation of the Jew's in the war is one of the few things that gives me any hope for humanity

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

The Danish evacuation of the Jew's in the war is one of the few things that gives me any hope for humanity

Not to get too far off topic, but Albania was another good story. Despite being at war and occupied by Italy, their Jewish population increased 11 times it's original during WW2. During the 1999 Kosovo-Serbia war, Israel airlifted hundreds of Kosovar Albanians to Israel to house them until the conflict ended. It's a shame that Albania was a victim of Western Betrayal after WW2.

[Jiri Hrdina]

My grandfather on my dad's side was a banker. My grandmother on that side was a homemaker. My grand-dad was a very bright guy who had a wicked sense of humor. He was a wonderful man.

I never knew my grandfather on my mom's side. He went off to the war as a smart and positive person, and came back totally broken and an alcoholic. He never recovered. He held done various laborer jobs, and my grandma would have to intercept his cheques otherwise he would drink them away. The family was poor but my grandma somehow made it work. He drank himself to death when my mom was in her early 20s. My grandma was an incredibly resilient and strong woman who lived a full and wonderful life (until alzheimer's slowly took her away) in spite of the man she married.

I don't blame him. The war broke him. He paid as much as a sacrifice, as those that lost their lives. The war killed him - but did so with tortuous pace.

[activeStick]

My father doesn't recall a lot about his dad as he passed before my dad was 5 years old. My grandma passed not much later when my dad was 9 or so and my dad ended up being raised by his older sister until he hit 12 or so, after which he was bought a ticket to Hong Kong, from China, to make a life for himself. Needless to say, my dad is my hero as he learned to read and write in both English and Chinese and managed to immigrate to Alberta all from essentially nothing. Not much I can whine about to a dad who's been through all of that, though I've tried!

My grandma from my mom's side was a homemaker which is a hard enough task for any mother, but my grandma raised 12 children!! I was super close to her before she passed. My grandpa on my mom's side was a doctor who practiced Chinese medicine and the stories I've heard from my mom and her 11 brothers and sisters indicate that my grandpa was the doctor to many actors, politicians and famous people in Hong Kong. When I was old enough to visit Hong Kong, my grandpa had already retired, but would still see select patients out of his home where I'd stay anytime I visited Hong Kong. Used to love sitting in the living room pretending to be doing something else, while listening to my grandpa speak to his patients and then watching him carefully weigh out his prescription of various herbs and ingredients before wrapping them in some sort of special white, wax paper and then listening to the sound of his abacus as he calculated the patient's bill.

[bootsnixon]

Same as Money Guy, farmed and farmed.
The story I like to brag about a man I never met was my grandfather on my Mom's side. He came from Ireland with his two older brothers. He was 14 and his brothers 16 and 17. The oldest got a job in Calgary doing construction. The younger two couldn't find work but heard you could homestead land south of Stettler. So a 14 and 16 year old boy spent a winter with absolutely nothing inside a handmade sod house in the middle of nowhere. Somehow they survived and my grandfather impressed the one room school teacher ( my grandmother ) enough that she married him and they had 10 kids and developed a farm. I look at my 15 year old son and question if he could survive alone with a stocked kitchen and heated house, lol. Sadly my grandfather died the year before I was born so only heard stories. I am in awe of him.

[edslunch]

My paternal grandfather was born in Ireland to British parents (on a military posting), fought in WW1, went on to become a Bishop, and died early due to lingering effects of a war wound.

I don’t know much about my grandmother - she died young in a car crash - but we have a set of beautiful water colours she painted as a young woman in the early 1900s.

My maternal grandfather was a successful businessman in building materials, but turned down an offer from a friend to start a pineapple business in Hawaii. His fiend’s name was Dole....

I don’t know much about my maternal grandmother.

[AltaGuy]

Maternal grandfather was born in Bokchito, Indian Territory which was later turned into Oklahoma. Ran away from home at 14 and made his way to Washington DC where he eventually became an executive at a medical x-ray company.

Paternal grandfather was an orphan in Montreal of undetermined origin who became a stockbroker and lived in Montreal his whole life. Was a pilot in World War 2, and then never flew again.

[undercoverbrother]

On my Dad's side they were evangelical preachers travelling the wastelands of England trying to save souls.

On my Mom's side, her dad did a bunch of stuff, Bakery owner stuck the longest. He was also a professional track coach. My Mom's mom stayed at home.

[Codes]

On my Mom's side, my Grandpa was a mechanical engineer and worked for Esso in Calgary. I'm not sure in what capacity, or if this was prior to his engineering days, but he always talked about working on the Alaska Highway. My Grandma was a stay-at-home mom raising all the kids!

On my Dad's side, my Grandpa was a salesman hawking various wares. My Grandma was a nurse.

I believe all of my grandparents were born in Canada.

[Cheese]

My maternal Grandfather was the oldest of 13 children. He was born in Pavelche, Stanislawow, Galicia, Austria (Austro-Hungarian Empire) which is now Ukraine. He along with his parents and 3 other siblings emigrated to Canada in 1913 at the age of 9 to escape severe prosecution by the Empire and what was horrific living conditions in Ukraine.

The family landed in Halifax and were sent to Saskatchewan where they homesteaded just outside of Wynyard. (Closeish to Yorkton). My Grandfather stayed in Wynyard and bought a 1/4 section of land from Hudson Bay Company for $900 in June 1937 where he farmed for a number of years before moving to town and taking a job with CPR on the Coal Dock after the dirty 30s. He later moved to Saskatoon with family where he worked installing the first gas lines for the City, before finally moving back to Wynyard where he worked managing the local Golf Course before heart attacks forced him to retire and pass on. I loved this man more than anyone else, he was my hero. Always had time for the children.
My maternal grandmother, also of Ukranian origin, was born on a homestead in rural Saskatchewan where she met my Grandfather in later years. She did what she had to do to help the family survive. During the dirty 30s my Grandfather had to go to northern Ontario to work as a lumberjack and she stayed home with 4 children and kept the farm running and the children growing. Very very difficult days. After they moved to town she took up nursing and practised that profession until she retired in the late 1960s. A wonderful human who LOVED family and cooking and lived to the ripe age of 98. I have many of her recipes to this day, Perogies, Holuptsi, etc...they have been passed down many times since.


My Paternal Grandfather and Grandmother also came from Ukraine (Pohorilivka) and also escaped the suppression of the Ukranian people in the late 1800s. Unfortunately I dont know a lot about them as my mother divorced out of that family when I was young. I do know that my Grandfather was a jack of all trades, but was also a farmer in Saskatchewan near Dafoe and my Grandmother was a stay at home mom. They were from what I understand wonderful people, I wish I knew them better. Later in life I reconnected with that family and it has been a wonderful experience!



Homesteads from both sides still exist, and the one thing that I took up a number of years ago was to be the owner of the family tree. My family's maternal side is now over 2300 people and still growing. I have an active Descendants Group on Facebook that helps all of these family members get to know one another. Ancestry.com was an excellent source for info and I highly recommend it to those who are of like mind.