Daily AncestorGrandmother
A grandmother is the mother of your father or mother; grandam is an older word for the same woman.
Grandmother means a parent's mother. The older word grandam (also spelled grandame) meant a grandmother, and in older writing it could also mean simply an old woman.
A census relationship column describes each person's link to the head, not to the children. A grandmother of the children living with them is therefore entered as mother or mother-in-law when she is the parent of the head or of the head's wife.
As seen in a recordGuardianship record, 1820s
Kezia Lumbard, the grandam of the said infants
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Grandmother." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/grandmother. Last checked 2026-10-12.