I have just read that anthropologists have something called the “long generation” which is the era from the birth of one person to the death of the latest-born person they could have possibly met in their lifetime and I actually think I developed a new type of emotion from learning this - ThreadSky

ambersparks.bsky.social • 94 days ago

I have just read that anthropologists have something called the “long generation” which is the era from the birth of one person to the death of the latest-born person they could have possibly met in their lifetime and I actually think I developed a new type of emotion from learning this

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ambersparks.bsky.social•94 days ago

I think all the time about how President John Tyler has a living grandson

storiesformyfu1.bsky.social•94 days ago

I'm not American but this factoid lives rent free in my brain all the time. Every few months, I have to google the dates of how that would possibly work.

ambersparks.bsky.social•94 days ago

It’s so crazy!

ledwell.bsky.social•94 days ago

🤯🤯🤯

ambersparks.bsky.social•94 days ago

RIGHT?!

pearl-editing.bsky.social•94 days ago

Thanks for sharing this. I come from a family of long-lived people - my great-great-grandmother passed at the age of 97 when I was 8, my great-grandmother at 91 when I was 25, my grandmother at 93 when I was 48 - so, I've often thought about this concept without having a term.

manxinwales.bsky.social•94 days ago

The interaction between the 'long generation' and the undefined but broadly understood notion of 'the olden days' is fascinating.

outsidevoice.bsky.social•94 days ago

Feels like this should be a German term.

ambersparks.bsky.social•94 days ago

Right?

bengalzae.bsky.social•94 days ago

Didn’t know it was a thing, but I’ve had this thought for a while: you exist until the last person who knew you passes on as well. Then you’re on a family tree on https://ancestry.com.🤷‍♂️

hamhock.bsky.social•94 days ago

A fine example of that from the 1950s:

poorjohn.bsky.social•94 days ago

An interesting example of this is Louis St. Laurent. He was Canada's 12th prime minister and he has the distinction of being alive during the lifetime of *every* other Canadian prime minister. It will continue to be true even if Trudeau is defeated by Pierre Poilievre.

ramoreeves.bsky.social•94 days ago

I love that a term exists for this track of time! Ty for sharing. I think a lot about my great-grandmother born in 1885 and about people older than me who can recall relatives even further back. Makes me believe “long ago” history was not so long ago.

goodbyeyall.bsky.social•94 days ago

I think about this a lot, my great grandma (who lived until I was 9) was born in 1896. Her uncle served in the American Civil War. I think of both of them often.

sonjablack.bsky.social•94 days ago

For me, that would be my mom's grandfather, who was born somewhere in the 1880s. Never met him in person, but I talked to him on the phone as a kid. I've probably got a good 40 years left in me (🤞), which would make our long generation around 180 years.

oldsnowflake.bsky.social•94 days ago

Ok now I'm going to be thinking about this all day.

johnmavericktx.bsky.social•94 days ago

I sometimes think about how I knew people who knew people who fought in the Civil War. Time is tighter than it seems.

harrietvane.bsky.social•94 days ago

I feel this way about EM Forster, who was a teenager in the Victorian era and wrote books about the anxieties of the Edwardian era and lived to see the moon landing.

markengleson.bsky.social•94 days ago

My grandfather was born 1912, died 1999, and his youngest grandchild (my cousin) was born in 1994 or 95. If my cousin lives to the same age (86), that'd be 2081.

flowersandhawks.bsky.social•94 days ago

I think it's cool that keeping these people in our thoughts extends their lives even more. I met my g-grandma in 1963. She was born in 1883. Still with me.

parsnipbutter.bsky.social•94 days ago

My great grandmother was born in the 1880s and I remember her fondly. My granddaughter will make the long generation pushing 250 years.

jregan.bsky.social•94 days ago

Along those lines, @kottke.org has a number of posts about The Great Span, “living persons bridging distant historical periods”

https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Great%20Span

etrigan.bsky.social•94 days ago

A guy who saw Lincoln get inaugurated survived long enough to go on TV to talk about it.

The last surviving subject of Queen Victoria died during Donald Trump's presidency.

jregan.bsky.social•94 days ago

Exactly!

izzos.us•94 days ago

You're only separated from the building of the first cities but around 50 exceptionally long lived people.

kathryntewson.bsky.social•94 days ago

My grandmother was born the year the first daily AM radio station was created, and lived long enough to meet her great-grandson over Skype.

leximccologist.bsky.social•94 days ago

My great grandmother, who was born in 1898, told me that her grandmother, who was born in 1838, taught her how to do dishes. This is when people had to haul and heat water, so first you washed glassware, then china, then pots and pans.

leximccologist.bsky.social•94 days ago

In doing genealogical research, I discovered that my third-great grandmother was raised by her grandmother, who was born in 1781. So I learned how to do dishes from someone born in the 18th century.

katherinearcus.bsky.social•94 days ago

I had coffee with an elderly man who explained how he remembered HIS grandfather telling him about being at the Gettysburg address. That elderly man passed away about ten years ago, but a living connection from the Address to the 2010s is pretty damn impressive.

ambersparks.bsky.social•94 days ago

Damn

katherinearcus.bsky.social•94 days ago

Right?

I’m also pretty sure that when I worked in theatre I heard that it only takes seven generations of actors teaching other actors to get back to Shakespeare’s Company. I can’t remember the details, though.

bstephens.bsky.social•94 days ago

Kevin Brockmeier’s The Brief History of the Dead was where I first encountered this concept. That book made a huge impact on me.

ohmydays.bsky.social•94 days ago

Looks interesting, added it to my to read list. Thanks!

gsjphd.bsky.social•94 days ago

A man whose father was born into slavery in America passed away two years ago.

blumanatee.bsky.social•94 days ago

I'm obsessed with this. I think about how people from the Victorian Age were still alive when we were born. I think about how my great aunt, who died when I was an adult rememered her great grandma, who died when she was a teen and was born in 1833. Andrew Jackson is barely out of living memory.

madamenouvelle.bsky.social•94 days ago

I calculated this from the birth of my grandfather (1899) to the end of my children’s hopefully long lives and it is nearly 200 years.

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