Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Female Ancestors' Age at Death

I'm accepting Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission, "Female Ancestors Age at Death", as follows:

1. Review your Pedigree Chart (either on paper or in your genealogy management software program) and determine the age at death of your female ancestors back at least five generations (and more if you want to).
2. Tell us the lifespan years for each of these ancestors.  Which of your female ancestors in this group lived the longest?  Which lived the shortest?   

Like Randy, I used Ahnentafel numbers to identify my female ancestors:

Mother:
3. Kathleen Marie (Murphy) Kirk (1921-1993) – 71 years

Grandmothers:
5. Mary Milliken (Hodsdon) Kirk (1882-1965) – 83 years
7. Glenna Marie (Rabideau) Murphy (1899- 1968) – 68 years

Great-Grandmothers:
9. Sarah C. (Sukeforth) Kirk (1838-1905) – 67 years
11. Kate Maria (Rand) Hodsdon (1855-1940) – 85 years
13. Rose Ann (McIntyre) Murphy (1862-1937) – 74 years
15. Eva May (Woodward) Rabdieau (1871-1953) – 82 years

2nd Great-Grandmothers:
17. Abigail (Faulkner) Kirkpatrick (1808-1891) – 82 years
19. Jane (Miller) Sukeforth (1810-1879) – 68 years
21. Abigail (Greene) Hodsdon (1814-1878) – 64 years
23. Dolly C. (Brister) Rand (1818-1904) – 86 years
25. Flora Ann (McDonald) Murphy (1832-1911) – 78 years
27. Mary Ann (McLellan) McIntyre (1817-1896) – 78 years
29. Marie Celina (Cloutier) Rabideau (ca 1849-1881) – abt 32 years
31. Mary A. (Washburn) Woodward (1831-1917) – 86 years

3rd Great-Grandmothers:
33. Nancy (Starrett) Kirkpatrick (1777-1834) – 57 years
35. Margaret (Morrison) Faulkner – unknown
37. Polly (Miller) Sukeforth (1775-bet 1850-60) – >75 years
39. Unknown
41. Sally (Huston) Hodsdon (1785-bet 1860-70) – >75 years
43. Hannah R. (Gould) Green (ca 1787-aft 1879) – >92 years
45. Elizabeth (Rand) Rand (1773-1857) – 84 years
47. Sarah (Chamberlain) Brister (ca 1790 - 1881) – abt 91 years
49. Magdelen (Morison) Murphy (ca 1800-bet 1861-81) – >61 years
51. Flora (Wilson) McDonald – unknown
53. Ann (Gillis) McIntyre (est 1789-aft 1851) – >62 years
55. Sally (McCormick) McLellan (est 1785-????) – unknown
57. Marie (Deshaies-St. Cyr) Robidas (1829-1895) – 65 years
59. Unknown
61. Mary Hawley (Sawyer) Woodward (1816-1880) – 64 years
63. Mary (Palmateer) Washburn (1812-1879) – 67 years

Unfortunately, my third great-grandmothers list is incomplete; for two I don't even have names, and for three more the name is about all I do have. So I didn't bother to go back another generation, because I'd have had too many "unknowns."

For those I have at least reasonably good dates for, the longest-lived is probably 3rd great-grandmother Hannah (Gould) Green, at least 92, though her contemporary Sarah (Chamberlain) Brister is a close contender at about 91. Since I don't have an exact birth year for either of them, I'd consider them effectively tied. The youngest was 2nd great-grandmother Marie Celina (Cloutier) Rabideau, who was at most only 32 when she died. (She may have been as young as 29.)

The average age at death for the 26 female ancestors for whom I have data is about 73, with a range of 32-92. Leaving out Celina (Cloutier) Rabideau, whose early death is obviously atypical, the average for the remaining 25 women is almost 75. Averages and ranges by generation:

1. Mother: 71 years.
2. Grandmothers: average 75.5 years (68-83).
3. Great-grandmothers: average 77 years (67-85).
4. Second great-grandmothers: average about 72 years (32-86). Again, leaving out Celina, the average for the other seven is 77 years.
5. Third great-grandmothers (11 out of 16): average about 72 years (57-92); Given that in several cases the actual year of death is known only to within a range of 10 or 20 years (died between censuses), the actual average may well be as high as 75 or 76.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Where Were Your Ancestors 150 Years Ago?

I'm accepting Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission, "Where Were Your Ancestors 150 Years Ago?", as follows:

1. Determine where your ancestral families were on 25 June 1866 - 150 years ago.
   
2. List your ancestors, their family members, their birth and death years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

My direct ancestors who were living in 1866 stretch from a single 4th great-grandmother (in my mother's line) all the way down to my paternal grandfather, including all 16 great-great-grandparents.

For the most part, I've based the residence locations on the 1860 and 1870 censuses (or 1861 and 1871 in Quebec), occasionally tempered with knowledge of birthplaces of children around 1866. I don't have photos of any of the houses, and don't know if any of them still exist.

1. Silas Kirk (1827-1909) and Sarah Sukeforth (1838-1905), my great-grandparents, were probably residing in Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine, by 1866, with their first two children Chester F. Kirk (1857-1939, my grandfather) and Abbie (who died in Auburn the following January). I'm not sure exactly where they were living, because Silas didn't buy his land in Auburn until 1868.
2. Jabez Bradbury Kirk(patrick) (1800-1884) and Abigail Faulkner (1808-1891), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Warren, Knox County, Maine, probably with their adopted daughter Georgianna Oliver, who would have been 16. 
3. Simon Sukeforth (1813-1874) and Jane Miller (1810-1879), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Washington, Knox County, Maine, probably with their four youngest children Addie, William, Frank, and Lawrenton.
4. Isaac Hodsdon (1812-1890) and Abigail Greene (1814-1878), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, probably with younger children Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon (1847-1911, my great-grandfather), Isaac Winfield, Francis Ireland, Matilda Ann, and Charles.
5. Nahum Alonzo Rand Sr. (1813-1884) and Dolly Brister (1818-1904), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Andover, Oxford County, Maine, probably with children Kate Maria Rand (1855-1940, my great-grandmother), Nahum Alonzo Jr., Ezra Davis, Asenath Matilda, Samuel P., and Annie Grace.
6. William Murphy (1830-1909) and Flora McDonald (1832-1911), my great-great-grandparents, resided in Prince Edward Island; judging from baptismal records, in 1866 they were probably in or near Vernon River. At the time they had seven children: Dominic Murphy (1854-1914, my great-grandfather), Lot, Flora Ann, Mary, James, Martha, and Daniel.
7. Neil McIntyre (1814-aft 1881) and Mary Ann McLellan (1817-1896), my great-great-grandparents, also resided in Prince Edward Island, probably in Indian River, though they may have moved to Lot 8 by 1866. All ten of their children would have still been living with them: Hannah, Angus, Alexander, Leo, Sarah Ann, Kate, Mary, Mary Ann, John Alfred, and Rose Ann McIntyre (1862-1937, my great-grandmother).
8. Celina Cloutier (ca 1850-1881), my great-great-grandmother, who would marry Louis Rabideau in 1869, almost certainly was living in Quebec in 1866. I have not yet discovered her parents or birthplace, so I have no idea where in Quebec.
9. Mary (Washburn) Yates (1831-1917), my great-great-grandmother, who would marry Uriah Woodward in 1867, was widowed in 1864 and was almost certainly living in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, with her nine children from her marriage to Stephen Yates.
10. Jacob Hodsdon (1787-1879), my 3rd great-grandfather, was living in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, either with his wife Sally Huston (my 3rd great-grandmother, who died between 1860 and 1870), or, if Sally had died by 1866, probably with his son John and family.
11. Sarah (Chamberlain) Brister (ca 1790-1881), my 3rd great-grandmother and widow of my 3rd great-grandfather Enoch Brister, was living in Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, with her daughter and son-in-law, Obed and Jerusha (Brister) Taylor.
12. Alexander McLellan (ca 1786-1867), my 3rd great-grandfather, was living in Prince Edward Island, probably Indian River.
13. Louis Robidas (ca 1832-1921) and Marie Deshaies-St. Cyr (1829-1895), my 3rd great-grandparents, were living in Quebec, probably either in Saint-Paul-de-Chester or Sherbrooke, with their children Louis Robidas/Rabideau (1850-aft 1913, my great-great-grandfather), Alfred, Louise, Marcelin Sinaie "Samuel", and James.
14. Royal Woodward (ca 1803 to 1879) and Mary Hawley Sawyer (1815-1880), my 3rd great-grandparents, were living in Walden, Caledonia County, Vermont, with their youngest children Frank P., Uriah Sawyer Woodward (1847-1881, my great-great-grandfather), and Mary A.
15. Mary (Palmatier) Washburn (1812-1879), my 3rd great-grandmother and widow of my 3rd great-grandfather Samuel Orcutt Washburn, was probably living either in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, or in Dummer, Coos County, New Hampshire, most likely with one of her children and their family.
16. Divine Louise Girardeau (1790-ca 1875), my 4th great-grandmother and widow of my 4th great-grandfather Jean-Baptiste Robidas, was living in Quebec, possibly in Stoke, Richmond County, where she resided with her son Damase "Thomas" Robidas in 1871.

So I had 32 direct ancestors definitely living 150 years ago:

• 1 grandparent
• 6 great-grandparents
• 16 great-great-grandparents
• 8 great-great-great-grandparents
• 1 great-great-great-great-grandparent

Additionally, I had 4 great-great-great-grandparents who were possibly alive at that time, i.e., they were living in 1860 or 1861 but I have no record of them after that. They are Robert Sukeforth, Sally (Huston) Hodsdon, Michael Murphy, and Magdelen (Morison) Murphy.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Addendum - Ancestral Death Place Chart

Following up on Randy's suggestion to create a death place chart to match the birthplace chart yielded this:

The Down East Genealogist's Six-Generation Ancestral Death Place Chart

As expected, the geographical diversity has dropped compared to the birthplaces. My father's line is now overwhelmingly rooted in Maine; the atypical Pennsylvania death place was due to my gg-grandfather dying while visiting a son who had relocated to Philadelphia, and while he apparently was buried there, he has a cenotaph in Andover, Maine.

On my mother's side, Ireland and Scotland (and the one unknown, who was probably born in Scotland or possibly P.E.I.) have disappeared as all are known to have died in P.E.I. Several Quebec-born 2x greats migrated to New Hampshire, while several New Hampshire-, Vermont-, and P.E.I.-born ancestors died in Maine or Massachusetts. The real anomaly is the 3x greats, born in Vermont, who ended up in Kansas (at least, he did – not so sure about her; she may have died in Vermont before he moved west).

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ancestral Birthplace Chart

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week is "to create a five or six generation ancestor chart that shows your ancestor's birthplaces." Having seen a number of these charts posted by various geneabloggers over the past couple of days, I had already prepared one earlier today – so I have a ready response to his challenge (click on the image for a full-size view):

The Down East Genealogist's Six-Generation Ancestral Birthplace Chart

Although I have several blanks, and a number of "tentative" birthplaces, in the sixth generation, I included it anyway because of its added diversity – my father's stolidly Maine line is, after all, pretty boring in terms of birthplace diversity right through my great great grandparents, and even my mother's line only gets across the pond with the 3x greats. The birthplaces with a ? appended are almost certainly correct, though I don't have any documentation yet, and the unknown birthplaces of four 3x great-grandmothers are very likely the same as that of their respective spouses.

A fun exercise indeed!

When did Samuel Orcutt Washburn die?

When I profiled my third great-grandfather, Samuel Orcutt Washburn, as #38 of my 52 Ancestors posts, I noted that while his gravestone pretty clearly says he died on 22 Jan 1850,¹ this doesn't jibe with his appearance on the 1850 census in September,² or with the two youngest children in his widow's household in 1860.³ (The 10-year-old could be his child, born after his death, but the four-year-old? That's a stretch.) I hypothesized that his gravestone might have been erected long after his death, by someone who misremembered when he had died, and that his actual death was sometime between 1855 (a year that appears in many online family trees, although unsourced) and 1859.

Samuel O. Washburn gravestone, Mead Hill Cemetery, Holland, Vermont

That's where I left it... until I found this newspaper article the other day after subscribing to GenealogyBank.⁴

"Found Dead," The Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, Vermont), 16 Feb 1850, p. 2, col. 4

Well, so much for my "miscarved gravestone" theory. This article appeared in mid-February 1850, stating that Samuel Washburn was found dead in Holland on the morning of January 24. While this implies he died on 23 January (not 22), it's likely the newspaper got the date wrong by a day (the item was published about three weeks after the fact, and who knows who the informant was).

It seems pretty obvious that the man described here is the same one who's buried in Mead Hill Cemetery in Holland, under a stone with a 22 Jan 1850 death date. And since that stone is for Samuel O. Washburn, born 5 May 1799, it's equally clear that this is Samuel Orcutt Washburn, born 5 May 1798 to Jeremiah Washburn in Sutton. (In this respect – the birth date – the stone is incorrect by a year, but the 5 May matches, and the birth date on a gravestone is a lot more likely to be suspect than the death date.)

So now I'm left with two mysteries.

First, why on Earth is this man listed in the census as living, a good eight months after he died from exposure and was buried? The only explanation I can think of is a possible misunderstanding about the mortality schedule, which was new in 1850 (as was the whole idea of naming every individual instead of simply noting numbers). Could the enumerator have asked for something like "the names of everyone in the household, as well as anyone who died in the preceding 12 months," and have misunderstood the current status of the 52-year-old Samuel Washburn named? (For that matter, if the 10-year-old Harmon listed in 1860 was, in fact, a posthumous child, then Mary Washburn would have been so visibly pregnant in September 1850 that it might not even have occurred to the enumerator that her husband was deceased.)

The second is, whose child is the four-year-old Norman listed on the 1860 census? He appears in 1880 listed as a brother-in-law in the household of Charles Griffin (husband of Charlotte Washburn). But if Samuel died in 1850, Norman can't be Charlotte's brother. (Mary Palmateer Washburn did remarry, but not until 1872.) The most logical possibility seems to be that he was actually the child of one of Samuel's older children. Unfortunately, it appears he never married, and I haven't found a death record for him, so as yet I don't have anything that might reveal his parents.

If anyone has any information that might shed some light on either of these mysteries, please contact me. You can leave a comment on this post, or use the email link on my profile page.

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SOURCES

1. Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 Sep 2014), database and digital images, memorial # 22761238 for Samuel Orcutt Washburn (1799-1850), created by "Lar" (8 Nov 2007), with photographs by "Thomas"; citing Mead Hill Cemetery (Holland, Orleans County, Vermont).  
2. 1850 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, page number illegible, dwelling 62, family 62, Saml Washburn household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Apr 2014). 
3. 1860 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, Holland, p. 71, dwelling 547, family 552, "Widow Saml Washburn" household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Apr 2014).  
4. "Found Dead," The Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, Vermont), 16 Feb 1850, p. 2, col. 4.