Tracking the lives of the oldest generation

Joanna Bornat and Bill Bytheway

The Open University, Milton Keynes, England

Each year we all grow older. This is as true of the oldest generation as it is of the youngest. What are the key events that mark the annual cycle in later life? What is the impact of family life transitions on members of the oldest generation? How do such changes affect inter-generational family relations? How, as older people, do we look back and make sense of such changes and their impact upon our lives?

In this paper, we will describe The Oldest Generation, a project that is part of Timescapes, a multi-centre, multi-disciplinary, ESRC-funded programme of qualitative longitudinal research. We are tracking twelve families over the course of eighteen months with the aim of recording the biographies, past and present, of their oldest members and setting these in the context of unfolding family histories.

In particular, we will describe some of the key events that have occurred over the course of the first twelve months.