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Great Aunt or Grand Aunt?
- Thread starter emjay
- Start date
Norman
LostCousins Member
Your father's father is a GRANDfather so I suppose it the correct form. A granduncle's father is a great granduncle.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
Well my first Family Tree software (Family Tree Legends-FTL -sadly now obsolete) always used the term 'Grand' over 'Great' and I too prefer that form of address. However in my youth I had a Great Uncle Peter and indeed Great Uncle George and (to we kids) that is how they were addressed. George was a sibling of my Grandfather (FTL maintained he was a Grand Uncle) whilst Peter married a sibling of my Grandmother's and -again in FTL -she was referred to as a Grand Aunt and George Grand Uncle by marriage. That said it seems I cannot escape the term 'Great' being applied to me as my younger sister insists on telling her Grandchildren I am Great Uncle Bob and won't accept Grand at any cost.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
Interesting Gillian but I cannot recall a choice in my old FTL program it just defaulted to Grand over Great which is strange considering it is an ages old program. On a whim I checked out Ancestry today with the names mentioned in my previous posting and Ancestry too refers to them as Grand. Perhaps that is becoming the preferred Genealogical form of address for siblings of grand parents, but it is good that Legacy offers choice.
Susan48
LostCousins Superstar
The Swedish (and probably Danish and Norwegian as well) words for grandfather and grandmother make a nice distinction between maternal and paternal grandparents. So forfar and farmor (literally father's father and father's mother) and morfar and mormor (mother's father and mother's mother). Neat, eh
Susan48
LostCousins Superstar
Thank you, Gillian - a typing error.
I've typically heard great-aunt, etc but believe they may be interchangeable as Gillian suggests. However I have heard that some have taken to preferring grand aunt over great aunt as it makes them sound less old.
Gillian
LostCousins Star
I've been wondering about this great and grand business. We (usually I think) say grandfather/great grandfather, grandmother/great grandmother, grandson/great grandson, granddaughter/great granddaughter. No problems with any of them, is there? So why does it become a problem with aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces? Why can't we just say grandaunt/great grandaunt etc etc etc? Why do we have to think about which to use? Any ideas?
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
I had never heard the term "grand aunt" except on this forum. I had two great aunts (never met them, just knew about them; one lived in England) and they were always referred to in that manner. When my sister's grandson was born 30 years ago she called me and informed me that I was now a great aunt . For some reason that made me feel older than being a grandmother did, maybe because my great aunts were much older when they died than I was at the time.
Today is our 52nd wedding anniversary; now *that* makes me feel old. LOL
. For some reason that made me feel older than being a grandmother did, maybe because my great aunts were much older when they died than I was at the time. Today is our 52nd wedding anniversary; now *that* makes me feel old. LOL
Britjan
LostCousins Star
I had a couple of "great" great-aunts through kith and kin, who were both quite Victorian and modern in their views. "Kith" would I suspect describe my godmother , and she had an aunt ( born 1879) who lived with the family during the years I was also living with them on and off. "Kanty" as we called her had been a pillar of the local WVS during WWII and was still dispensing tea when I knew her in the 1950's and 60's. "Kin", courtesy of my stepfather, were his two lovely aunts,( born in 1884 and 1890) who lived in one of the magnificent late Victorian blocks of flats in Hampstead.I've typically heard great-aunt, etc ..... it makes them sound less old.
With regards to grandparents etc. what I find interesting is how we differentiate them when we are children, my father's mother was "Granny" and my mother's mother "Grandma" while my daughters called their paternal grandmother, "Nana". When they met their cousins,who have an Italian mother, they thought "Nona" was a neat term and it certainly avoided confusion at family gatherings. The one great grandmother (step) that I remember was always referred to in conversation as Great Granny.
emjay
LostCousins Member
It reminds me of the tongue-twisting football score, Forfar 5 East Fife 4
jorghes
LostCousins Superstar
I actually always dropped the "great-" and referred to all my great-aunts and uncles (and I have a few) as "Aunt" or "Uncle", although I called a lot of people that - all my parents family friends were given the "aunt/uncle" tag, but I always knew which were related to me, which were meant to have a "great-" on them and which were just honorary aunts & uncles. And even though I don't have to do it anymore (I'm well past childhood now, although probably still quite young for this board) I still refer to most of them by aunt or uncle, even when they tell me not to! (My father's sister for example prefers not to be referred to as Aunt, even her children refer to her by her first name, but I still struggle!)
As for numbers, I (did) have 6 Great Uncles and 10 Great Aunts! (Unfortunately not so many of them left now, I'm down to all paternal side, and 2 Great Uncles, both well into their late 90s and 2 Great Aunts - one 96 or so, the other just turned 90).
As for numbers, I (did) have 6 Great Uncles and 10 Great Aunts! (Unfortunately not so many of them left now, I'm down to all paternal side, and 2 Great Uncles, both well into their late 90s and 2 Great Aunts - one 96 or so, the other just turned 90).
Gillian
LostCousins Star
I had never heard the term grand aunt and grand uncle before they came up as alternatives in Legacy and now, more recently, on this forum. That's why I'm curious about them. Nor did I ever have to differentiate between grandparents when I was little as they'd all died except one grandmother, who was Granny. But a niece of mine distinguished between her two grandmothers by calling them Granny Hastings and Granny Worthing!
Similar to Sue's case, my husband's father, a widower, married again at the same time as we did. His sons by his second marriage are roughly the same age as our kids, so they never seemed like uncles any more than he seemed like a grandfather, and they used to call him Uncle Grandpa (only in Finnish of course - vaari setä).
I agree with CanadianBeth about great aunt making one sound much older than grandmother.
Similar to Sue's case, my husband's father, a widower, married again at the same time as we did. His sons by his second marriage are roughly the same age as our kids, so they never seemed like uncles any more than he seemed like a grandfather, and they used to call him Uncle Grandpa (only in Finnish of course - vaari setä).
I agree with CanadianBeth about great aunt making one sound much older than grandmother.
Your great/grand nephew was born 30 years ago that's plenty of time for you to now be a great great aunt or even just possibly a 3x great aunt. Now THAT would make you feel oldI had never heard the term "grand aunt" except on this forum. I had two great aunts (never met them, just knew about them; one lived in England) and they were always referred to in that manner. When my sister's grandson was born 30 years ago she called me and informed me that I was now a great aunt
Ah you're a fan of the Two Ronnies? That's from one of their sketches.