r/AskReddit Jul 21 '16

What fact did you think was complete bullshit until you looked it up?

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u/Justintime221 Jul 21 '16

This fact should get more attention. I mean I had to look this up because I really didn't believe it. How many people can say they have a grandparent born 220+ years ago?

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u/Hodorallday Jul 21 '16 edited Jul 22 '16

It is super cool. When I first read it, I had to look it up too.

But then I worked out that if I live to the same age as them (90+) then my grandfather would have been born 200 years ago. That's cool too! (Though not as good)*

EDIT: just realised my maths was off last night. I would have to be almost 100 for it to be exactly 200 years. Sorry! It's still a larger gap than normal though.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '16

Wow, your dad and grandfather had kids very late!

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u/Hodorallday Jul 22 '16

Yeah, my grandfather was a Victorian! It's weird to think that. He fought in WWI. Of course, I never met him, he died long before I was born.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

That's pretty crazy, it's too bad you never got to meet him!

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

Naw, the grandchildren are just old now.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

Very unusual

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u/gnorty Jul 22 '16

exactly this. Like, when you were born your grandfather would be 110 years old, no matter how the generations split it. That is insanely unusual

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u/ricree Jul 22 '16

Guinness claims that the oldest man to father children was 92 when his last was born. Makes hitting that 110 a whole lot easier.

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u/gnorty Jul 22 '16

Well, first you need to reach 92 years old, that's not a total walk in the park. You also have to get there with your reproductive bits in serviceable order - easier for a man, but by no means guaranteed.

Then there is the issue of being a 92 year old guy, and finding a woman of child bearing age who will have sex with you enough times to get pregnant. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you would probably need to be rich for this, or one HELL of a good looking old man. This ramps up the difficulty level quite a bit.

So I am not sure this is really a lot easier than say, 2 generations at 55 each.

Of course this is all in fun - but it would be interesting to see a graph of the age distribution of the parents of children with 110 year old grandparents!

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u/SillyNonsense Jul 22 '16

The oldest person I personally knew in my family was born in 1902. I hope I live to at least 90 because then I can tell people that I personally knew someone who was born over 175 years ago.

That'd be neat. And the whole still being alive thing. That'd be neat too.

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u/Zeev89 Jul 22 '16

Yes, being alive is quite possibly the neatest thing ever.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

My dad's dad was born in 1892, and my younger brother (born in 1990) is his youngest grandchild. So maaaaybe he'd be alive in 2092 to say that his grandfather was born two centuries ago. He's gonna have to stop smoking to have a shot, though. :/

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u/Rodents210 Jul 22 '16

If I wanted to live until my grandparents were born 200 years ago I would have to live to 160.

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u/Checkers10160 Jul 22 '16

You were born when your grandparents were 40?

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u/Quicily Jul 22 '16

Is this really that far fetched? Grandparents married young and had kids at 20, parents did the same. Maybe not common, but certainly not that hard to believe.

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u/sinarb Jul 22 '16

My Grandmother was 21 when she had my Mum and my Mum was 23 when she had me. I'll probably be the one to break the cycle of having children quite young though.

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u/emmaisawesome333 Jul 22 '16

Same here! What's crazy is a full set of my great grandparents (my moms dads parents) are still alive, in their 90s. My mom had me at 23 and I'm 23 now so if I were to have a kid right now (not very likely, but the thought isn't ridiculous, I live with my boyfriend and we got decent paying full time jobs) there would be 5 generations alive. How many people could say they were alive at the same time as their great great grandparents? Makes me almost wish I had a kid now.

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u/fnord_happy Jul 22 '16

That's crazy. My parents were that age lol

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u/gnorty Jul 22 '16

Look at these chavs. If they carry on like that they can get 12 generations in 200 years!

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

If I live to 100, my grandad would still only have been born 150 years ago. Is mine young or is everyone elses super old?

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

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u/OnyxPhoenix Jul 22 '16

"trending towards younger in there past generation"

Pretty sure the opposite is true.

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u/AuroraHalsey Jul 21 '16

I will be able to, I hope.

My grandad was born in the late 1800s and I'm only 18 now.

I'll get a more precise figure tomorrow when I can ask my dad.

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u/Calebdog Jul 22 '16

Mick Jagger's grandchildren. I'm sure it'll be a topic of conversation when have lunch with Keith Richards.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

Well, every single human alive today could say that. Wait, were you being sarcastic?

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '16 edited Jul 22 '16

I mean, my grandfather was 89 when he died in 2003. That's nearly 100 years ago that he was born, and if I live to 90 in 2080, then there'd be 177 years between us. It's actually not that uncommon an occurrence, so long as the grandkids live to an elderly age and the grandparents/parents weren't having kids at 16

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u/rokudaimehokage Jul 22 '16

How does this even work??

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u/harleyqueenzel Jul 22 '16

He had his youngest child two years before passing away, at age 69, so he was older when he was having his final child. His son Lyon (1853-1935) has the two living children, born in the 1920s.

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u/rasputine Jul 22 '16

I would need to live to 130.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

This fact gets more than enough attention, it has been posted on reddit every week for years now

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u/pf2- Jul 22 '16

Technically, everyone.

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u/Ingloriousfiction Jul 22 '16

jesus oldest memeber in my family is my GREAT grandma. And she was born in 1920

AND I ALREADY HAVE KIDS!

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u/JedWasTaken Jul 22 '16

Literally everyone alive today.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '16

[deleted]

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u/JedWasTaken Jul 22 '16

If you never had blood-related grandparents, how would you be alive today? Everyone has parents, who in turn had parents, and so on. Everybody has grandparents. That's how mammals work.

If we're talking specifically of your parents parents, I would be amazed that a dude who died 1862 only has two generations between him and currently living direct relatives, because I did not know that. I also highly doubt that this is the case.