|
Pages: [1]
|
 |
|
Author
|
Topic: Life expectancy in Mid C19 (Read 256 times)
|
painterlady
RootsChat Member
Posts: 101
|
A cousin who is struggling with our family history has queried the life expectancy in Sheffield at this period and I had to say I didn't know, those of my ancestors who survived childbirth and infancy and the odd fever or accident lived to a ripe old age, often into their 80s, admittedly often as paupers which couldn't have been much fun but' life expectancy' is an average figure so what was it? mmm? I suspect it was less than my husbands Ag Lab lot.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
avm228
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5154
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
|
Do you mean life expectancy at birth? A person's life expectancy changes throughout their life - the life expectancy of a newborn will necessarily be lower than that of a 5 yr old because, as you say, it's about averages, and the average life expectancy for a newborn has to take account of the risk of infant mortality.
Here's an article which includes some statistics (albeit industry-specific ones) about life expectancy in Sheffield in the 1840s:
http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/regionhistory/rhcnew/regionalism%20papers/White.doc
So far as I know, overall life expectancy at birth in England & Wales hovered around the 40 mark in the mid-19th century, with very high infant mortality. However, as you say, plenty of 19th-century people lived to venerable ages, even if their life expectancy at birth had been in the 30s or 40s to take account of the risks attendant on infancy and, for females, giving birth. If life expectancy at birth was, say, 40, that did not mean that people generally expected to die at around 40, or that people in their 70s or 80s were particularly rare. But the prevalence of infection and dangerous working conditions would certainly have meant that deaths in the middle years (30s and 40s) would have been much more common than they are now.
My own Yorkshire stock were made of tough stuff - most of the women in my direct line born in the last 200 years have lived to at least 90 (though by definition my direct ancestors did not die in infancy and survived to produce at least one child each, otherwise I wouldn't be descended from them!)
Anna 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Ayr: Barnes, Wylie
Caithness: MacGregor
Essex: Eldred (Pebmarsh)
Gloucs: Timbrell (Winchcomb)
Hants: Stares (Wickham)
Lincs: Maw, Jackson (Epworth, Belton)
London: Pierce
Suffolk: Markham (Framlingham)
Surrey: Gosling (Richmond)
Wilts: Matthews, Tarrant (Calne, Preshute)
Worcs: Milward (Redditch)
Yorks: Beaumont, Crook, Moore, Styring (Huddersfield); Middleton (Church Fenton); Exley, Gelder (High Hoyland); Barnes, Birchinall (Sheffield); Kenyon, Wood (Cumberworth/Denby Dale)
|
|
|
painterlady
RootsChat Member
Posts: 101
|
Well yes of course I was referring to expectancy at birth although I am never sure about this 'the longer you live the longer you can expect to live', there comes a cut off point! ouch!
Thanks for the link That is fascinating and I will go back to it when I have more than a brief spell before getting lunch. My Sheffield men were largely in the steel business one a File Setter which I gather was a highly skilled craft before it was mechanised. Another earlier a nail maker which, until I looked it up sounded a strange thing to be doing by hand.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
behindthefrogs
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 4272
EDLIN
|
Well yes of course I was referring to expectancy at birth although I am never sure about this 'the longer you live the longer you can expect to live', there comes a cut off point! ouch!
I am afraid not. However long you live, if you are still alive you will have an expectancy to live a little longer even if it is only a few seconds. For example if you are the oldest person in the world you will still be expecting to live a little longer and so expecting to be older when you die than the current oldest person in the world.
Similarly everyone who had a life expectancy of ninety some years ago will if they reach ninety have a life expectancy of more than ninety. I know it is stating the obvious but that is what you are questioning.
David
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Living in Berkshire. From Northampton & Milton Keynes DETAILS OF THE FOLLOWING NAMES ARE IN SURNAME INTERESTS, LINK AT FOOT OF PAGE Wilson, Higgs, Buswell, PARCELL, Matthews, TAMKIN, Seckington, Pates, Coupland, Webb, Arthur, MAYNARD, Caves, Norman, Winch, Culverhouse, Drakeley. Johnson, Routledge, SHIRT, SAICH, Mills, SAUNDERS, EDLIN, Perry, Vickers, Pakeman, Griffiths, Marston, Turner, Child, Sheen, Gray, Woolhouse Census Info is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
|
|
|
Pages: [1]
|
|
|
|
|
