[Vocabulary] What is the greatest grandfather called?

[ronaldo1980]

Hello,

What is the greatest grandfather of a family called?

I mean by that the founder of the family or the first grandfather.

Thanks.

 

[Tarheel]

He might be called the family patriarch.

 

[Barb_D]

How could someone be "the first grandfather"? Didn't he have parents?
I agree that "Patriarch" is a great word, but I don't logically understand the idea.

 

[ronaldo1980]

How could someone be "the first grandfather"? Didn't he have parents?
I agree that "Patriarch" is a great word, but I don't logically understand the idea.

For example he is from Roberts family, but then he founds a new family called James. So he is the first person in the family and founder of James family.

 

[Barb_D]

Perhaps the reason this is hard for me is that we don't simply change our family's name.

A few generations ago, when people immigrated to the US, they may have changed their name to something more "American." In that case, you might say he was the patriarch of the American branch of the family.

 

[GoesStation]

My father and his brother changed their family name in 1944. They shortened and "Americanized" it, as was pretty common in those days. They both immigrated as children. I have relatives with several variations of names derived from the family name their father used.

 

[Barb_D]

So is your father the patriarch? Is your uncle? Is he "the greatest grandfather"?

 

[GoesStation]

So is your father the patriarch? Is your uncle? Is he "the greatest grandfather"?

In their youth, they might both have said that Jacob was the patriarch. Since family names weren't part of their heritage, they attached little importance to theirs.

I always get a laugh when I read in old literature that someone was from "one of the oldest families."

 

[Raymott]

Wouldn't all our greatest grandfathers be the first multicellular organism that reproduced sexually?

 

[Tarheel]

Wouldn't all our greatest grandfathers be the first multicellular organism that reproduced sexually?

LOL!

 

[Rover_KE]

Tarheel, we discourage members from using texting abbreviations. Please use :lol: or :loling: instead.

 

[Tarheel]

OK.