Something Fishy

[mare]

A little tale to share 
Before I knew much about my husband's family line, many years back, he used to refer to his grandma Fish. After a couple of times I commented on the name as being the name of a friend of a friend and also being a name on my sister's husband's tree (line ) and wondered if there might have been a connection. It turned out that she was actually his greatgrandmother and her name wasn't Fish. The children all called her grandma Fish because she had a big fishpond  ... and he wasn't able to tell me what her real name was either.... So that could have been a real red herring  but I had his mum to put me straight there fortunately.

I know people who have a big nana and a little nana for example to help the children know which they are visiting etc.  or grandma for one and nana for the other.

Our family has always added the surname to the nana or grandma and I would guess that would be the usual.
One of my sisters though likes to be known as nana Mo as everyone calls her Mo...

  mare

[forthefamily]

In my household my kids called both grandmothers Nana...which wasn't a bad thing really because one was here in Canada and the other in England 

The few times I met my FIL he frequently referred to an Elsie. Not wanting to be rude, I asked my husband who this Elsie was that his father was referring to and he had no idea  So now, after doing his tree it turns out that Elsie was his grandmother who died at a very young age. I thought is was rather odd that my husband's father called his mum by her first name  I wonder if she had lived...what would my husband have called her  ...hopefully not Elsie  ...hopefully Nana 

mab

[mare]

My gran on dad's side died when I was quite small and her first husband many years earlier. We always called her G'ma B...... , the family name, not the name of her 2nd husband. My older sisters used to stand at the gate when they were visiting telling any passers by that they were visiting G'ma B who was married to G'dad S....    so in those times people probably thought that was pretty fishy too 

Would like a few more facts and someone to confirm what I have on that line too ...

[Just Kia]

Because I wasn't bought up by my mum I don't call her mum - I use her name and my uncles refer to my grandma as "Dotty" rather than "mum", even thought they were bought up by her.
Although to confuse matters further I was bought up call my nan "mummy" (way to confuse a child people!) but now I don't like to call her mum but don't wish to demote her either so use "ma" which satisfies everyone (she see's it as short for "mam" and I see it as short for "grandma").

My half brothers (bought up by our mum) used to call their paternal grandma "Granny Crackers". I assumed this was her (re)married name... Nope, turns out the youngest brother started it because she had some large cracks in the ceiling

[mare]

  named by association from childhood perspective too then 
perhaps it is quite common for children to do that 
And of course when there are mixed relationships anyway due to whatever circumstances it must be hard for small children to work out who is a real aunty or nan. I have been called aunty by friends children as it seems an alternative to being too formal or too familiar I suppose 

[justmej]

My husband likes to be called Grandad, so when our grand-daughter called him Granda one day, he said "No, that's not right, who am I"?  She replied "Grandad", to which he said "correct"..... now she calls him Grandad Correct!

justmej

[Maggie.]

When our daughter was learning to talk many years ago she copied me and called her grandmother (my own mum) 'mum'.  My mother remained 'mum' to our two children for the rest of her long life.  This used to cause some very strange looks when people heard these two children calling this lady 'mum' when she was obviously a little beyond childbearing years 

The small grandchildren of some friends of ours always refer to their grandfather as 'Grumpy'   
Maggie

[longchuk]

When I started my family research I ran into a stumbling block due to a name.  My grandmother always told me stories about her grandparents.  She called them grandma and grandpa Tom.  So when I started doing my own research I looked for people with the last name Tom.  Unfortunately by the time I started researching it was too late for me to ask my grandmother more questions.  It took me a while and a little bit of interviewing of family members to get the correct name.  It is Tomlinson.  That whole time of her telling me stories i just assumed their last name was Tom.  The family laughs about it now.

[Maggie.]

Welcome to RootChat, longchuck - I know you will get lots of help on here, and make friends too  .

Maggie