I can name my great-grandfather, but only because we have the same name.

I can, but I'm generally considered the family history buff...

And how is poppa abgemacht these days anyway?

Being dead takes up most of his time.

What's he doing when he's not being dead?

coppin' endo

I feel like one of them was named Mary, and I know one was named John (Irish people are easy), and there's whatever German Kaisers called their bastard children somewhere back there, but other than that, no.

I can get six of eight.

I bet Diplomat33 can name all four great-grandparents.

I only know 3 of 8...

Zultar, what are you even implying there?

I can name only two, and only because of being a famous historical character (and his wife) I only have one memory of the only one i met, and I don't know her name... (a single visit to a hospital room as a three year old doesn't really count as getting to know...)

ora, who's your famous relative?

Micheal O'Rahilly

Well... famous in Ireland at least...

He seems like a pretty cool guy, and he's from Kerry. Nice.

I can do it, and half of the generation before that. But I'm an amateur genealogist.

I can. There is great grandpa B and great grandma B and great grandpa H and great grandma H and... Oh wait. You want first names. Then I only have 2 of 8.

I can name all of mine now, but I had to ask my parents for some of the names, in response to this thread. I can only name three of my great-great grandparents' first names.

I can't name the ones I actually knew, as they were just called Great Gran etc. I can name all the ones who were dead by the time I started remembering, except for the two who were removed from the family history :p.

Still, on the off chance that I have any distant relatives out there (using the law of extraordinary coincidence), I will name a few of my glorious ancestors of the past 100 years.

Absolom Youden, Silvernus Manhennet, Pearl Marquis, Gretta McLaren

I can name them all, have photos of seven out of the eight, and have been to the houses where six of the eight lived. I know all the great-grandmothers' maiden names. I am in possession of two of their pocket watches, one's favorite armchair, and one's hockey gear (cool guy... semi-pro hockey enforcer from St. Catharines, Ontario circa 1910 named "Dirty" Percy Overholt).

And just for ha-has, here they are:
Percy Overholt
Maria (Johnson) Overholt
Franklin Heck
Anna(Braun) Heck
Arthur Benoit
Alma (Francouer) Benoit
Cassius York
Susie (Scribner) York

I knew two natural great-grandmas well and saw them every year until I was about 12. I also met an adoptive great-grandma, just once, for a few minutes. However, some lines we know well. I was close with a great-great aunt whose father came to the U.S. in the 1860s. That line is well documented back to the first Lutheran Bishop of Stavanger, who came from Denmark in 1575--but it also goes back to the 1000s on another line. I guess I'm off topic.

Hecks that's incredible based on the straw poll that showed how much we generally don't know about our great-grandparents. You will get my real admiration if you can list your sixteen great-great grandparents (no cheating as I'll be checking) Are you into ancestry or is this just something you know? Also are you, or have you ever been, a practising mormon?

@Mujus - I didn't know you could adopt great grandmother, that's cool, I think I'll do that to fil in the blanks.

@Maniac
I have an ancestry.com account, and can look them up. I know that I haven't yet found the great-greats on the Johnson side. As you can imagine, there were lots of Maria Johnsons in Ontario.
But for your enjoyment, here's my great-grandfather's hockey team, c. 1908. They won the championship that year. He's front row, second from the right.
http://twitpic.com/49gdmr/full

@Dipplayer - I used to do some genealogy. One of my ancesters once got drunk and broke into the local church in an attempt to steal the wine. He was sentenced to death. However his sentence was commuted on appeal as he was of previous good character and had saved the lives of two people previously, one from muggers and one from a shipwreck. Instead of being hanged he was transported to australia where he served his time. The ship that took him had 250 odd people on at departure but only 150 odd made the full journey. I'm in touch with his descendents via the wonders of the internet and facebook

And no, not Mormon. But I'm the only son of an only son of an only son, and I don't have any kids, so I feel sort of an obligation to track this sort of thing and someday pass it along to my nephews.

That's awesome hecks. I can trace my paternal line back to the English Civil War (1642-1651) but I don't have any photos : (

My family lived in an area which was stauchly royalist throughout but we haven't been able to discover on whose side the family was.

Later on my family had a disagreement about a will that in today's money would be billions £ but none of it made it as far as me sadly.

Sad day when you don't inherit billions...

@Maniac,
Hell, if you liked that, you'll love this:

My great-great-great grandfather Henry C. Marden, a carriage good merchant from Belfast, Maine. http://twitpic.com/c9d8yt/full

And his father, my great-great-great-great grandfather Beniah Marden, a farmer from Monroe, Maine. http://twitpic.com/c9d994/full

It's a fascinating hobby. Like solving a puzzle, but the puzzle is connected to you, quite literally. There's no thrill like spending hours in the Maryland State Archives to find the marriage record of my great-great grandparents, which also tells the names of their parents and places of birth (Wales and Bavaria)!

Hecks - Only son who has nephews? Do you have a sister then?

because I am the first American in my family (two European born parents), and most of my great grandparents lived far into their 90s (and two over 100) I can name them all, because it was pounded into my head, and I think I met them all but 1 quite a few times.

However, I doubt my children can.

@Draug,
Yes, I have two sisters. My father was an only child. My grandfather had two sisters. He also had a brother who died in childhood.