Week 40: Longevity (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 40 is "Longevity." Longevity doesn't have to be about someone who lived a long time. It could be anything that lasted longer than usual, such as a family business or a marriage Be creative with the prompt! Click here to check out all of the theme for 2023.

My father had two aunts who lived to be over 100 years old. 

Elsie Dorothea Crinion was born on Oct 5, 1898 in Columbia County, Wisconsin, USA. She died Mar 17 1999 at the age of 100. Elsie was married on Apr 29, 1918 in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin to Lawrence William Leech. Lawrence was born on Mar 17, 1896 and died at the age of 46 on Mar 18, 1942. They had three children, Helen born Sep 19, 1922, Ruby born Sep 1 1925 and Lawrence born Oct 19, 1926 all in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin. Lawrence sadly died shortly after birth. Helen died at the age of 88 on Oct 28, 2010 and her sister Ruby died at the age of 81 on Apr 12, 2007. 

Elsie’s sister, Marie Elizabeth Crinion was born Aug 14, 1905 and died Sep 11, 2004 at the age of 101. Marie was married on Aug 15 1931 in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan to Arthur G Dewar. Arthur was born on Nov 20 1902 in Indiana and died July 1957 at the age of 54. They had two children, Susan born about 1936 and John born about 1940, both in Michigan. 

Elsie and Marie’s grandfather, James Crinion lived until he was 91. He was born on Feb 2, 1832 in Ireland and died Feb 25, 1923 in Fountain Prairie, Columbia County, Wisconsin. 

Even though I find that these and others lived well into their 80’s and older, I also found many who died young. Thus, I decided to run a Family Book on James Crinion and his descendants using the plugin Family Book Creator, which has a statistics paragraph.

This document reports the details of 307 individuals, of whom 156 are male and 151 are female. Of the 91 individuals with recorded birth and death dates, the average lifespan was 60.1 years. Of these, 47 males averaged 59.8 years, and 44 females averaged 60.4 years. The longest living male was William Joseph Linder (1915–2010), who died aged 94. The longest living female was Marie Elizabeth Crinion (1903–2004), who died aged 101. 

William Linder is not a blood relative but a spouse of one of my 2nd cousins once removed. Thus, I wish this wasn’t used in the calculation. Plus, I have no way of knowing of those with no death dates, if they are still living, how old are they and wouldn’t this change the average lifespan of the males and females. With the female average lifespan of 60.4 years, it is an eye opener for me, since I just turned 60 this year. YIKES.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!