"A hundred years ago, you were lucky if you reached sixty"
 

If you were a baby, you might well die before the age of five.
If you were a woman, you could well die of childbirth.

But most of my female ancestors, if they survived childbirth, were quite capable of surviving into their seventies and eighties. Going back to second great grandparents, only two died before sixty, and one of those was a miscarriage. I realise this is a self-selecting sample and will be biased, but where I can find both birth and death, my lot usually made their three score and ten. Is that your experience?

My four great-grandmothers were the following respective ages at death:
79, 73, 66 and 67.

My eight great-grandmothers were:
37, 76, 82, 80, 67, 74, 92 and 54.

My 4 great-grandmothers: 75, 82, 68 and 84

My 8 g-g-grandmothers: 48 (phthisis), 69, 53 (smallpox), 85, 87, 87, 71, 62

My 16 g-g-g-grandmothers: 81, ?, 78, 54 (cardiac disease), 80, 82, 42 (childbirth, 15th baby), 76, ?, 92, 64, 47 (phthisis), 79, 85, 72, 59 (cancer)

Very similar profile to mine, Elizabeth. Of my 31 immediate ancestors, 3 were under 35 - pre civil registration, but I suspect childbirth issues, two in their forties (miscarriage, heart disease) one in their fifties (sullen insanity!) and one aged 65 was accident/suicide. Including those shortened lives, the average is still er my current age :eek::d

My two grandmothers: 84 and 94.

My four great-grandmothers: 58, 87, 66 and 81

7 of my 8 GG-grandmothers (no death found for the other one): 66, 87, 33 (phthisis), 79, 76, 66 and 90.

10 of my 16 GGG-grandmothers: 69, 81, 71, 60, 75, 31 (died a few weeks after childbirth), 80, 71, 39 (cause unknown), 94 .

Have to check actual ages but I know it was my biggest single surprise when I started doing my family history to discover how old most of my ancestors were when they died. Best is one of my 2x ggms, who died of old age at 92, at which point she was still climbing over 100 steps four times a day to tend the lighthouse. She was married and widowed three times, had eleven children and brought up three sets of grandchildren after their mothers died.

Most of my ancestors who survived childbirth and freak accidents, lived to a ripe old age although tb got the better of some of them in the 19th century when they moved from country to city.

OC

15 of my 16 great-great-grandmothers:

77, under 40 (husband remarried), 75, 71, 76, c. 28 (childbirth, husband remarried), 67, 45 (childbirth), 83, 72, 68 (1854 cholera outbreak in London), 27, 73, 75, 64

My g-grandmothers: 73, 72, 40, 79.
2xg-grandmothers: 70, 65, 80's, 39, 90, 45, 86, 84.

It's also interesting to see the trend of the different lines.

My longest-lived line is my direct female line starting with my maternal grandmother: 94, 81, 90, 94, 87, 64

Mine isn't so good.

Father's side:-

Scottish grandfather died at 40, his father died at 33, his father died at 60

Scottish grandmother died at 78 and her father died at 69, his father died at 58

Mum's side:-

English Grandfather died at 52, his father, died at 56, his father, died at 31 in fact he died 2 months before my great grandfather was born.

English grandmother died at 82, her mother died at 91, her mother died at 88.

My English grandmother's maternal line wasn't too bad unfortunately the other lines cancel it out.

In fact on my Scottish side a lot died very young one direct ancestor a great great great grandfather died in a mining accident in his 30's but most died of disease of some sort.

Edit to add: pretty depressing writing it out.

My tree program tells me my female ancestors, where I have their birth and death details, pan out like this:

Died aged ..... number of ancestors
20-29............1
30-39............2
40-49............9
50-59............6
60-69..........10
70-79..........16
80-89..........23
90-99............3

Male ancestors:

Died aged ..... number of ancestors
40-49............2
50-59..........15
60-69..........15
70-79..........23
80-89..........23
90-99............1

I suppose there are going to be sickly young people who were unlikely to have children, and where you live makes a difference: my labouring Norfolk ancestors did in general make their late seventies or eighties, while those who crowded into the cities did not last as long, but I'm sure Merry's statistics are fairly representative of our ancestors, who didn'tall die at sixty!

I just wish it would also tell me which male ancestor it was who died aged over 90, as I can't recall that!

My grandmothers died at 44 and 97 ( in her 98th year). It's highly likely my paternal grandmother was an undiagnosed diabetic, she did die of kidney related illness; her mother was a diabetic, my father died of renal failure, and I too got the diabetes gene.
Great grandmothers: 84, 68 ( the diabetic), 85 (also a diabetic), and 74.
Great-great grandmothers: 50, 63, 69, 75, 89, 48 (typhoid fever), 55, and 32 (septicaemia after childbirth).

The thing that really shocked me about my tree (apart from the deaths and the bigamies :eek:) was the number of people in lunatic asylums on both sides of my family. Some of them were there for half their lives. A few were only there towards the end of their lives, and probably had Alzheimer's or similar, but some had really serious mental illness.

Further back, my 6 x ggm died aged 84. She had 19 children, 16 did not make it to adult hood, the first six all died in a three week period from smallpox. She outlived all of them. She haunts my dreams.

OC

An interesting exercise!

My great grandmothers were aged 38, 39, 65 and 82 at death. The two that died young had TB/Phthisis. All four lived in the East End of London.

My 8 2x gt grandmothers were 61, 36, 85, 36, 67, 68, 76 and 43.. Again, all East Enders, the two in their thirties died of Phthsis. The 43 year old died of starvation in Shoreditch through sheer poverty and the failure of the Poor Relief system.

That is awful, Sue. Best Mate's father was born at the turn of the last century. He was the youngest of a large family. Only four reached adulthood. Looking at the babies who died, they were down to malnutrition and the poor mother obviously having the next child before her body was ready.



I went to a lecture on postpartum depression where the mothers were admitted to asylums where they were fed properly, had peace and quiet, and returned to their communities stronger, happier and with much more flesh on their bones!

Sarah Moore's death certificate records her cause of death as "Sudden death/fever accelerated by long privation and want of proper food"

The inquest was widely reported across the country. My favourite report is this one from The Bedfordshire Mercury, 11 Apr 1863 https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/...ethnal%20green
I hope the link works. Other more factual and less florid reports state at the end that the jurors were of the opinion that no blame attached to the parish authorities.

That is awful, Sue. There was a fuss when a relation of mine presented himself and his son at the workhouse.... but left his wife behind. When asked why he had disobeyed the rules, he said she was heavily pregnant and FIFTEEN MILES was too far for her to walk. It has always reminded me of Fanny Robbins in Far From The Madding Crowd.

I found this really interesting to do!

Great Grandmothers: 66, 72, 82, 69
Great Great: 72, 71, 67, 72, 57, 71, 83, 28
Great Great Great: 42, 36, 79, 71, 61, 30, 51, 60, 64, 81, 75, 73, 84, 62, 57

Average age for ggg grandmothers: 61

Great Grandfathers: 85, 77, 50, 90
Great Great: 86, 48, 68, 85, 83, 82, 46, 67
Great Great Great: 43, 58, 30, 68, 81, 80, 55, 66, 80, 73, 71, 56, 68, 62

Average age for ggg grandfathers: 63

Seems that in the first three generations, men were longer lived than women. As I go further back, there seem to be more longer-lived ones, many into their 80s and 90s (male and female).

My ancestor Sylvester Manclarke was buried Feb 16 1784 in Lowestoft, aged 106. I have a copy of it from the register and that's exactly what it says - fits in with his baptism as well.

I will never know for sure how old my 10x-great-grandfather Edmund Armesby was when he died, but he was definitely very old.

The entry from the parish register states this:

“Edmund Armesby an aged man beinge, by his owne relation in his life time, and the opinion of aged men who knewe him even from their minority, about one hundred and tenne yeres of age died January 15th and was buried Jan: 16 Anno 1629 predict at evening prayer by Walter Winston master of Artes and at that time Curate here to the great Comfort of all the parish of Bletchington”

OH's 6 X g-grandfather married 5 times and died aged 92. His 5th wife was over 30 years younger than him, and herself lived to 94.

So between them their lives spanned the years 1693 to 1818.

My 4 x great grandfather died in 1845, aged 97. This is the oldest death in my family that I know of. My 3 times great grandfather in a different branch died at 93.

Most of my direct ancestors (excluding women who died in childbirth) died in their 80s or 90s. If they lived in the countryside they tended to live longer than those in the towns/cities.

Recently they've been dying off earlier than in the past.