What level of education did your grandparents have (university, degree, high school)

[DawnW]

and what year were they born (or approximate.)

Great Grandparents? If you know

Father's Side:

My Great Grandfathers (b, 1880s) - one had a college degree, no clue about the other, I never heard him mentioned much
My Grandfather (b. 1906)- PhD and became a professor
My Grandmother (b. 19120- 4 year degree, was a nurse

Mother's Side:

Great Grandparents (1890s)- no college, nothing beyond grade school
Grandmother (1915)- no education beyond 6th grade
Grandfather (1912)- finished high school, was in the army a while, no other formal education

As you can see, it is a wide range. No one was wealthy, but my father's side always had decent jobs and were self sufficient. My Mother grew up very poor and always struggled. But it seems that every generation gets a little better and my mom and her siblings (6 of them) did much better, 3 of them earning college degrees and all of them having steady work that paid the bills.

[jtab4994]

Father's side (born in Ireland, 1890s)
Grandfather: Not sure. He went to Scotland at age 14 to apprentice as a carpenter before emigrating to the U.S. where he owned his own homebuilding business before going bankrupt in the Great Depression.
Grandmother: Not sure. She came to the U.S. to work as a maid.


Mother's side (born in U.S., 1900s)
Grandfather: Not sure. Possibly graduated high school. Worked in sheet metal.
Grandmother: 8th grade. Had to drop out to help with younger siblings and work as a telephone operator.


I only knew my maternal grandmother which is why I know specifics about her education. The others died before I was born or when I was little.

[mizzourah2006]

Just for context I'm 34.

Father's side:
Grandpa had a bachelor's
Grandma, nothing.

Mother's side:
Neither had a degree

Father had an associate's degree
Mother had a bs in accounting.

[Chava61]

My paternal grandfather (born 1894) had a degree in Architecture from Columbia University. I assume my paternal grandmother (born 1900) finished high school.

My maternal grandfather (born 1906) didn't finish high school as his father (who was a baker) died young and he needed to help support his mother and younger brothers. My maternal grandmother (born 1911) graduated from nursing school and her maternal grandfather (meaning my great-great grandfather who was born in 1840) was a medical doctor.

[509]

Grandparents:

Mothers side: Probably minimal education around 5th grade. I suspect both were born sometime in the 1890's. Both were killed by the Germans.

Fathers side: Bit more than on my mothers side. However, not much they valued the horses more than an education. Both were killed by the Soviets.

Mother: some education, maybe a couple of years. But the kids were needed to work in the fields to support the Soviet state.

Father: no education, none. Became an orphan at the age of ten. Survived the Holodomor on his own as a kid and WWII as a young adult. Pretty much was illiterate in the four countries he lived in during his life. That took a while for me to figure it out.

My father was pretty strong on that education was more important than horses (though we never had horses). All three kids ended up with University degrees, including two from UC Berkeley.

[psr13]

Paternal
Grandparents: Graduated high school but not until their kids were in high school
Great-Grandparent's: Don't know but assuming no college. I have no idea if they finished high school.

Maternal
Grandparents: My grandma has a college degree, and my grandpa has a master's.
Great-Grandparents: My grandma's mom has a college degree and her dad an advanced degree of some sort (not sure what level). I don't know about my grandpa's parents.

[Pyewackette]

Father: Born 1919. First and only member of his family to attend college. Born and raised in a tar paper shack

Paternal grandfather: Born 1893. No formal education to speak of. Worked in itinerant jobs most of his life until after WWII.

Paternal grandmother: Born 1903. Married 1919 (more than 9 months prior to the birth of my father in Dec of that year). Probably did not get past the 6th grade if that.

Mother: Born 1930. High school education - she probably did not actually graduate as she married my dad at 16. So 10th grade at most, likely.

Maternal Grandfather - born 1902. NO education. Was thrown out to fend for himself and his 3 year old sister at age 5.

Maternal Grandmother - born 1909. High school education.

ME: Born 1958. One year short of completing my doctorate before becoming disabled. The only one of my father's children who went to college.

Son: Born 1984. Completed doctorate and is now an academic. Only child, so obviously the only child of mine who went to college. Sort of completing the apparent family tradition of the last 3 generations, LOL!

None of my siblings went to college, and none of their offspring completed college. 2 nieces married the first year in college, basically encouraged to do so by my crazy sister because she thought they were "growing away" from their high school boyfriends. Result being yet another generation of ill-educated people. Plus one of the two having to go through horrible abuse from the a$$ she dated at 16 turned into. Finally divorced him.

To my knowledge none of my siblings grandchildren have attended college either. My dad would be rolling in his grave, if such were possible.

In the course of looking up these dates I discovered my half-sister's son died several years ago, and that he was born on the same day (but not year) as me. Strange coincidence.

[Katarina Witt]

Father's side:

Father: Born 1914. Master's degree, mechanical engineering. Bro also had a college degree.
Grandfather (his father), b. 1876: Not a HS grad. I'm not sure exactly how much education he had. Ran his own carpentry business. The depression put him out of business, no house-building going on.
Great-grand, (father's father's father) b. 1842, Germany. Farmer. No idea of level of education.
Grandmother (his mom), b. 1877. Not a HS grad. Owned a dressmaking business before marriage.

Mother: Born 1921. Nursing diploma from hospital school of nursing, certificate in public health nursing from Simmons College in Boston. First in her family to graduate from HS let alone go on to higher ed. Both sibs also graduated and had some higher ed.
Grandmother (Her mom), B. 1891: 6th grade education. Was very passionate about her kids graduating HS
Great-grands, mother's mother's side: B. 1842 and 1845, respectively, in Germany. Not HS grads. Farm family, ggf a Civil War veteran, got his farm for his service. Had previously worked for the RR.
Grandfather, B, 1895. 8th grade education
No idea about the rest of his family.

[jamary1]

My grandparents were all born between 1899-1901. One grandfather went to school for 3-4 years. The other one may have finished 6th grade. They both lived in rural areas and were born to poor farming families. Both of my grandmothers completed 8th grade, which was considered well-educated for girls back in 1914. One grandmother went off to some sort of "finishing school" for a few months. Her sister actually graduated from a 4-year college.


My mother graduated from high school. My father had a college education.


I had an elderly friend who graduated from high school in 1916 at the age of 16. She went off to what was then called "normal school" (later "teacher's college") for four months and then because a teacher in the wilds of Kentucky in a one-room schoolhouse, teaching 1st-8th grade. She taught there for two years and then had the misfortune to be seen in a restaurant with a divorced man and lost her job because of her disgraceful and unladylike behavior. At that point, she had no other choice but to marry him and leave town, which they did and lived a wonderful life. She never taught again, though.

[Serious Conversation]

Maternal grandfather: 1931 - high school education
Maternal grandmother: 1936 - dropped out in eighth grade.

Both paternal grandparents graduated high school