Many of us Whitney descendants seem to have bragging rights regarding long-lived ancestors. I cannot resist jumping in. Looking at my data, I realize that along many lines I have birth years without the year of death. Hmm, there's a project for the new year. Where I do have data on life spans, there are some impressive ones. Jabez Whitney (November 1767 - April 1849) lived to be 81. His second wife Sally lived to be about 59. Their son William was 72 when he died. His wife, a Peabody, lived to be 93. Their daughter Flora died at age 82. Her ten children, born between 1880 and 1903, lived to be the following ages: 1) 35; 2) 79; 3) 79; 4) 75; 5) 89; 6) 89; 7) 82; 8) 1; 9) 79; 10) 94. The tenth child was my grandmother. Her daughter, my mother, died at age 67, but her brother and only sibling is alive and well at 70. Of course, those born in the 1880s or later are a real watershed generation as far as longevity is concerned: if they lived past World War I, very often they lived well past any life-expectancy they would have been given by the contemporary experts at their births because of the advances in sanitation and medicine made during the twentieth century. In other words, the population of octogenarians, nonagenarians, et cetera, increased dramatically in the late twentieth century, and Flora's children were in that generation. Miles Fowler ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.nexet.net