[Nell]

In my tree, a lot of my ancestors reached their 80s and 90s. I think it was much healthier living in the country, once you'd passed the various childhood illnesses.

Later in the 19th century as they moved into towns they became less healthy and a lot of them died a decade or so earlier, often of lung diseases which shows the worse quality of the air. The veg wouldn't be as fresh and they would be in densely populated places with shared toilet facilities.

The eldest one in my tree at death was my gt x 4 grandfather John Gray who lived to be 98, dying in 1845.