These stories are all so interesting. It makes me think there are many families who are unaware of giftedness in their own families, but then after discovering their children are very GT, they look back and have an "i bet gramps was HG...that explains things!"

I come from a very blue collar family. My dad was one of 7. My paternal grandpa was a plumber, and all his sons are/were plumbers. Even the guys who married my dad's sisters all eventually became plumbers. If you can count quick witted humor alone as a sign of giftedness, then many members of my dad's family were GT. I find that I never paid attention to some of the extracurricular achievements of this family until after we found out our son was HG+. Now I suspect more of my relatives to be GT. I was the second in this large extended family to graduate from college (not counting trade schools, which my relatives didn't seem to think was as big of a deal).

My mom grew up very poor in a family struck by depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism. She spent much of her childhood in crummy foster homes. Until she went back for her master's degree when she was in her 40's, and aced every class, she didn't think of herself as all that smart. I know she is quite gifted. I suspect her dad was gifted also, but quite troubled.

My MIL is very intelligent, and after we found out about our son, we've had discussions wondering what could have been if she had been identified as gifted. She said she skipped school most of the time, and still did the best in the class, but they wouldn't make her valevictorian because she missed school too much. But she did very well for herself as it was. Never met FIL, but he certainly has the gift of gab (had a radio show). His mother graduated from high school at 15 and was known to be very smart. Both MIL and FIL grew up in working class families. MIL was first in her family to go to college, I believe. MIL said both DH and his brother tested gifted, and she told me their numbers. I suspect that the tester stopped when she discovered they were in the gifted range, based on stories from their youth and how they are now. I think DH is probably HG. I was identified as gifted in school, but never thought much about it until DS was identified and I read about underachievers!