Maternal Grandmother was Gran Maternal Grandfather - dead before we were old enough to know / name him Paternal Grandmother was Granny Paternal Grandfather was Grandpa Siblings of grandparents (both sides) were known as Great Aunt and Great Uncle and still are. My children enjoyed having two Great Grandmothers until last year. One was Great Gran, the other Great Granny. The complication arises here where the children find Great Great Aunt So and So is just too much of a mouthful! We have four of these left in our family. My seven year old gave up and tried her own version - Great Granny's sister! Hope you like that little lot. It certainly made me smile thinking of them all. Catriona ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Clouston <mcclouston@bigfoot.com> To: <ORKNEY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: 21 May 1999 14:35 Subject: [ORKNEY-L] What do/did you call your grand-parents siblings? > Hello listers! > A family discussion the other day brought up the question of what we call > our grand-parents' brothers and sisters. Do we call them our grand-aunts > and grand-uncles or do we call them great-aunts and great-uncles? In my own > family they were always "grand", "greats" entered the equation in a previous > generation and are called great grand-aunt or great grand-uncle and not > great-great-aunt or uncle. At least when I talk about my great grand-mother > and my great grand-uncle, I am talking about the same generation! > The Concise Oxford Dictionary shows grand-aunt and grand-uncle as = > great-aunt and great-uncle, so both are correct as far as they are > concerned. > I just thought it might be interesting to learn what the consensus of > opinion was among the rest of the group. > Also did you have a "special" name for your grandparents? How did you > distinguish between your father's and mother's parents when you were a > child, always assuming you were fortunate enough to know all of them? I > don't remember my mother's mother as she died when I was only two years old, > and my mother's father died before I was born. However my father's father > was always "Grampa" and father's mother was "Granny". > Kind regards > -- > Mike Clouston > mcclouston@bigfoot.com > http://www.mike.clouston.ukgateway.net/ > http://www.pegwell.ukgateway.net/ > >