Fun Biographical Question: How did your parents meet?

Question

A great way to add interest to WikiTree profile pages is by including answers to genealogical interview questions, such as "How did your parents meet?" These stories can have a great deal of value to future generations, since they are often full of details from daily life from the period of time and the place we live.

My parents met in the 1950s when two of their friends got them together spontaneously, without either of them having had a chance to dress and fix their hair (in my mother's case, which was up in a scarf) or footwear (in my father's case, who was wearing white socks inside flip-flops) for that momentous occasion. My mom actually thought my father looked like he was wearing fancy Japanese style tabbi socks, and I don't think my dad minded my mom's hair being up under a scarf at all.

I'd originally meant to ask the question, "How did your grandparents meet?" but then realized that many of us have no idea what the answer to that question might be. But if you happen to know and feel so inspired, feel free to share!

Comments

My parents met randomly at the restaurant next to the Pickwick Theater:

Luckily my dad had just learned enough English to be able to ask my mom out!

My mother's parents met because my grandfather was the brother of my grandmother's best friend, and my father's parents met because they more or less had an arranged marriage. (Rural village life.)

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Oh, I love this picture and your story--especially the part about your father having learned just enough English to ask your mom out! Arranged marriages often worked out amazingly well. Thanks for your wonderful response!

Answer 1

My mother had just had a fight with her roommate and took herself down to the bar in a huff. My father, no doubt overcome by her '80s makeup and big '80s hair, bought her a drink.

I heard that my grandfather met my grandmother on a fishing trip. She was only 14!! My grandfather's brother ended up marrying one of my grandmother's sisters as well, so clearly men from that family had a thing for that particular batch of women.

A friend of mine told me that his grandfather picked out his grandmother from a catalog of eligible Greek brides. Back in the day, a Greek man who'd immigrated to New York could get a catalog (this being pre-Okcupid or Tinder) and have his choice of Greek babes. Can you even imagine marrying some random guy who picked you out of a catalog!

Comments

Ha, ha! I remember that big '80s hair, and that '80s makeup too---whew! And I've got family members whose siblings have married siblings, so I know what you mean about that.

The Greek mail order bride catalog is what most rivets my attention, as I can't help but wonder, "Does anyone have one of those catalogs today?"

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A vintage mail order bride catalog would be quite the find! There must be a few out there somewhere, however moldy and well-thumbed. One can just imagine the dad sitting Junior on his knee and saying, "Son, this is the photograph of your mom that made me send away to Greece for her..."

Answer 2

Great question...my mom & dad met at a  Theta Chi fraternity party at Drexel U about 1947-48. My mom was in nursing school near Drexel, where my Dad was studying to be an engineer.

Comments

Very cool how your parents met--and they sound like good complements for one another, nursing and engineering. My dad's an engineer and my mom was a schoolteacher.

Answer 3

My parents met at some kind of dance.  Teenagers were always going to dances in the '50s.  Have your heard of P.C. Richards & Sons?  They are a large appliance chain of stores.  I think they are nationwide.  Why is this significant?  Because mom was dating "& Sons" son and dumped him for my father.  She was married less than 2 years and I am not an heiress - "Thanks, Mom!"  Not only that.  When she divorced, she was living in Hawaii, where I was born.  She had offers to adopt me and the baby she was carrying, but she turned them down and went back to live with her parents in NY.  In other words, I could have been living in Hawaii all this time!  Fast forward however many years, now I am divorced with 4 kids and no child support.  Mom is dating some guy and he brings her to see his house.  It was literally a mansion on the water.  Wrap around porch, large enough to have a west wing, north wing, etc.  So, she breaks up with him the following day.  All she could picture was who was going to clean all those rooms!  Enough to say, my kids did not get their own rooms...

My grandmother liked to tell the story that she met my grandfather in Kindergarten.  He allegedly used to pull her hair.  He got left back because he had a stutter (which he outgrew once they stopped trying to cure him of being a lefty).  Years later, she was divorced, with a baby, and I don't know how they met and decided to go on a date.  Well, the first thing she told him before they went out is that she wanted to show him something. That something was Uncle Bob.  I think my grandfather decided right then and there to marry her.

I met my first husband through my sister.  She worked in a department store with him and found him very annoying.  He was always asking her out.  She gave him my number thinking I would put him in his place, but I am a doofus and went out with him.  Hence, 4 children, no child support...

Comments

Wow, what amazing stories you have! Not only packed with facts, but funny in a heartbreaking way. How funny that your grandmother said she wanted to show him something, that turned out to be Uncle Bob! Sounds like with such a creative, funny mind as yours, success is inevitable

Answer 4

This was in 1961.  Mom was attending Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.  My dad's brother and his girlfriend wanted to double-date and they needed someone short to go out with him.  Mom was the lucky (?) lady.  FYI, dad was 5'1" and mom was 4'11" at the time.  This is where I get my "height".  I'm 5'0".  :P

Comments

Aw, that's such a sweet beginning, and I love the way you tell it!

Answer 5

Dad was a private pilot instructor, and mom learned to fly with him. He was also a self-taught parachutist. She jumped once. He made 143 jumps.

Comments

Wow, I can see how your dad would stand out to your mom--and obviously your mom must have stood out as special to your dad, too. What an amazing way to meet someone!

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Yup. They don't make self-taught parachutists anymore. 10 jumps in tandem strapped to the instructor before the first solo. He read a magazine featuring parachuting and decided he could do that. Don't know whether there were just no instructors in the area.

Dad was also Québec's first private hot-air balloonist. "Le Ballon Vert" has been restored and is in a museum now.

Answer 6

Haha This one genealogical question From the 20th century that ironically

seems harder to find a referenced correct answer than the 16th century.

I'm glad it was bought my parents argue about what my fathers moms maiden name was; "Kritsoppherson", my mom thinks. And "Sams" my dad claims too be 100% certain of.(she died in 1995) and her record must have flew in the wind.)

Comments

Yes, you're right that it's unlikely to find the "right" answer with references--unless one's parents are notables, and have books and articles written about them. That's part of why I'm asking this question here, though--since we have the opportunity to record this part of our parents' stories while we're around to tell the tale. And sometimes while we might not know the answer, we might be able to find it through someone who knows.

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Agreed ndeed

Answer 7

I've been asking this about all the marriages in the family. Most are pretty obvious but I never asked my parents or grandparents. I have reluctantly concluded that both my mum and grandmother picked a sailor up in the street!

Comments

Ha, ha! I'm glad you're asking this question about all the marriages in your family--and maybe along the way, someone might know more of the details about how your parents and grandparents met!

Answer 8

My mum had immigrated to Germany on a Aug 1, and had found a room to live in until September 30 with a woman who knew Esperanto. For October she found a different accomodation.

My dad started to study in Hamburg at the start of October, so he arrived there on September 30. He called the only woman he knew there. She had lived years ago in the city where he was raised. She answered: "Great that you're calling, you could help me, one of my lamps up there on the ceiling is not working." So he goes to fix that.

In the evening of September 30, my mum comes home from work to that woman who knew Esperanto and my dad stood on a ladder and was working on that lamp of the only woman he knew in the city.

5 months later they married.

Comments

Wow, I love the way you tell this story--it's got such a magical, fairy tale feel, as if this love and marriage was meant to be!

Answer 9

Someone needs to add the cliche...

My father worked harvest season on my maternal grandfather’s farm.

Comments

Awesome! One great thing about that way of meeting is you can really get to know who someone is while you're working on a farm, "keeping it real" for sure!

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And he had his choice of 4 of the farmers daughters

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That reminds me of an ancestor I sourced who worked, in the late 1800s,
for a farmer who only had eight daughters.  He ended up marrying the oldest one.  I don't know if he inherited the farm or not.

Answer 10

At the skating rink.

Comments

Beautiful!

Answer 11

my parents meet in a Danish town call Esbjerg, my dad was a musician and play in a dance hall where my mother visit, the fall in love and move to Copenhagen, my mother whom was born in Hong Kong was moving to Denmark after both her parents died Thank you Chynthia for asking 

Comments

How exotic your mother must have seemed to your father, having been born in a far-off land. And I imagine with your father being a musician, your parents might have in common a greater appreciation for different ways of living. Thank you so much for sharing this, and a photo, too!

Answer 12

Great question Cynthia. My parents met as WWII ended. Mother was a Molly the Riveter gal, at Lewis-McChord Field in WA and the Army had sent my father to Tacoma for discharge, even though he was from Calif. Once there, they withheld his discharge, due to his refusal to pay a Red Cross bill for some clothing he was offered, after a ship mishap, dumped him and his comrades into the sea on their way to Iceland. He was 6’6” with a size 13 shoe and the items they provided were for a much smaller person, so he declined and air dried what he arrived in.

Apparently the money couldn’t be taken from his pay without consent, so he was stuck in Tacoma for a few months during this standoff and met my mother at a Lutheran Service Center, that was an off duty recreation facility.   He was eventually granted a discharge, without paying the Red Cross bill and they were married.

Comments

I love how your story has so many interesting details that help illuminate the kinds of surprising situations people dealt with that I'd never have heard of otherwise. I never would have imagined that something like a ship mishap might occur, resulting in someone losing clothing that fit them--or that the military would be so stubborn about initially docking him for clothing that never really worked in the first place. And I love how your father truly made the most of dealing with the proverbial situation where "life gave him lemons," succeeding not just in being granted his discharge without being charged for that Red Cross bill, but also in finding his wife. Thank you so much for sharing this!

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It is those details in the stories of peoples lives, that attracted me to genealogy research - how some little twist of fate, changes lives forevermore. So my existence is due to a torpedo and the Red Cross :)

Answer 13

My dad was a military police in the United States Air Force, stationed in Boston. His buddy, my Uncle, brought him home for dinner where he met my mother. They married several years later.

Comments

What a wonderful way to meet--at a family dinner! Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful family story!

Answer 14

My parents met early 1941 in the small town of Beaumont, California at the skating rink. Mom said they used to go there all the time, it was about the only place teenagers could socialize. Then daddy volunteered for the Army. He was stationed at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) for basic training. He wrote mom and said if you want to get married you'd better get up here. So she went alone at age 16 to Tacoma and they were married in May 1942. I came along in March 1943. By that time Daddy was already in North Africa. I didn't get to meet him until I was almost 3 years old.

Comments

Wow, that took lots of courage back in 1942 to travel so far alone at age 16--and with WWII looming so large, creating such an atmosphere at the time. How marvelous that your father came home safely when you were 3!

Answer 15

My mother was born and grew up in the small town of Arboga as the daughter of one of the two glaziers in town. My father was born in the village of Baltak 170 kilometers away, as the son of two teachers in the rural school. So how did they meet? Mum was a telephone switchboard operator and Dad was a budding telecom engineer, so they both took courses at the same time in the same building in Stockholm. This must have been in the beginning of the 40s; they were engaged for several years while Dad was in military service. They married in -46 and I was born in -47.

Comments

What a great way to meet, taking classes at the same time and place in Stockholm! And what a time to be engaged, with WWII shaping world events and history. How wonderful that your father came back safely from military service, and your parents married and had you!

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Thanks Cynthia!

Military service in Sweden during WWII was - fortunately - a dull business. The men were just obliged to serve for a longer time. From pictures I've seen I think Dad spent his time bumping along in Volvo cars on winding little forest roads managing the field telephone lines.

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I'm so intrigued to hear about what your dad was doing in Sweden in WWII--such valuable service he provided, doing something I'd never given thought to, yet which clearly played a vitally important role at the time.

Answer 16

My parents met at the local church Bible class for teenagers.

My mother's family moved to the house next door to the church in the early 1950s when my mother was a teenager. She had easy acess to other teenagers (young men)  who arrived there every Sunday morning. It wasn't long before she too was attending.

Mum and dad were married in 1958.

Comments

Oh, that's so sweet! I love the way you describe the situation; it sounds like your mom made the decision to join in with Bible class for teenagers once she saw who was showing up there every Sunday morning!

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Quite probably yes.

They went to different schools - she to the girls high school and he to the boys high school. So the only time they really could meet was during the weekends and at church.

Answer 17

My mother is celebrating her 100th birthday this weekend.  That is one of the questions we asked in her interview we filmed for the party. They met in 1941 when Dad was stationed at Orlando Air Base.  One of her friends worked at the base. After a weekend at home, another friend and Mom drove her back to Orlando.  A group of young airmen approached the girls car and started a conversation.  Dad eventually made a date with Mom for the next weekend.

Since Mom didn't drive  and Dad didn't have a car, her brothers drove her to Orlando the next weekend. The boys went to a movie and let Dad take their car. Sometime during the evening while cruising around, Dad got pulled over.  Seems he didn't actually have a driver's license.  He was arrested and booked into jail. Some buddies from base had to come bail him out. The police wouldn't let Dad drive, so one of the airmen had to drive them back to pick up her brothers at the theater. They got married in May 1942 and were married for 57 years.

Mom's parents met when my grandfather rented a room in 1913 at my great grandparents boarding house.  My grandmother was seeing someone at the time who her parents didn't like.  Her parents asked my grandfather if he would escort their daughter to her brother's wedding.  He accepted and apparently the evening went well.  They courted for about 9 months and then got married at the boarding house in 1914.  They were married for 70 years.

Comments

I love these stories--thanks so much for sharing them!

I'm so glad you asked your mother this question this weekend, and so glad you filmed her response! What a wonderful family history story, too, complete with being arrested and locked up in jail--but love prevailed!

Answer 18

My father first saw my mother on the Devonport Ferry which went from the North Shore to Auckland City. He was in the Army at the time, and I think back then Mum was working as a secretary. He told me that when he saw her he turned to his mate and said "I'm going to marry her!". His mate thought he was dreaming :) But he wasn't, and so I am here to tell the tale. They have just had their 57th wedding anniversary.

Comments

What a great story of love at first sight--I love it!

Answer 19

My dad's aunt is married to my mum's uncle, so although they are not related by blood to each other they have a mutual first cousin, and that would be how they originally met!

My mum's parents met as my Grandma worked in a department store in Bedford with one of my Grandad's sisters.

My dad's parents I beleive met in the naughty corner at school!

Comments

Aw, these stories are so sweet! Though I'm not exactly sure what the 'naughty corner' at school was...  :-)

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Would that be the time out coner where you were sent to face the corner for a time in minutes that equals your age?  You were supposed to think about how and why you were naughty so you could promise to never do that again.

Of course kids have short memories and they usually forgot by the end of the day!!

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They evidently remembered meeting there, I'm not sure about the why!

Oddly enough my paternal grandmother was born just around the corner from one of my husband's grandfathers - the same registrar had signed the birth certificates.  As far as we know they didn't actually know each other, but it does go to show what a small world it is!

Answer 20

An excerpt from my father's biography:

"In 1920, at the age of 6, Mel and his father lived with his aunt's family at 1402 16th Street in Moline Ward 6, Rock Island, Illinois. Down the street at 1420 lived his future wife who was dweling with her parents and 2 brothers."

Comments

Ahhh! Very nice! And we leave it to our imaginations how these two first met as children, and grew to know and love one another.

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My mother said she always knew him. She was 4 in 1920. There were no other children their age on that street.