[rustbucket]

Your in-laws' parents were born in the 1850s?

Yes. I picked 'rustbucket' as a handle for a reason.

My in-laws were each the youngest or next to youngest of ten children, and they had their own children late in life. My wife is the youngest of those children.

Their strong feelings about Yankees were a shock to me. They gave me a personal connection with Georgia history.

[GOPcapitalist]

Despite what Grand Old Partisan may think, it's not at all surprising that many people today are only two or three generations away from the war. In fact, IIRC, there is still at least one living widow of a veteran. She was born after the war and he married her late in life, but that is only one degree of separation from a soldier in the war itself.