Lanie, a comment regarding those particular statistics. I'm told that a large part of the short life span of the time was attributable to truly horrendous infant mortality. If you managed to live past childhood, you had a fairly good shot at living to an old age. For what it's worth. Vic Walker (another Whitney, 'way back) -- **************************************************************************** Vic Walker R.Ph., B.C.P.P. Internet Address(es): [email protected] or [email protected] Printed with 100% recycled electrons. Lanie wrote: Because I, too, have longevity in both my mother's and father's lines, I've found this discussion quite interesting. Tonight, I decided to do some research on life expectancy to put the longevity" into more of a perspective. Here's what I found: In the year 1700, life expectancy in America was 35 years. By the mid-1800s, it was 40 years. By 1900, it was 47 years and less than 3% lived longer than 65 years. Now, looking at antecedents on both sides who lived into their 80s and 90s in the 1600s thru the 1900s takes on a whole new meaning! Lanie