My mind wandered as I saw the news of the death of Miep Gies at age 100 (actually just short of 101). It's hard not to wonder about God's plan that Miep lived to be 100 and the person through whom we all know her, Anne Frank, died at 15 (and would only be 80 if she were still alive).
So, being a numbers guy [Randy isn't the only one], I took a look at my database to see who my shortest lived ancestor was. No doubt it was someone is the distant distant past. Several medieval people came up, so I redid the search for just colonial ancestors and later (born after 1575). The three youngest were:
1. Smith Woodward of Boston 1644-1668 [age 23], son of Robert and Rachel (Smith) Woodward and husband of Deliverance Hoppin by whom he had Smith Woodward (Jr.). See:
- Our Woodward Lines In Massachusetts and Vermont: From Nathaniel to Joseph of Athol, Mass. and Many of his Descendants by Helen S. Ullmann (Acton, MA, 1992);
- Some Descendants of Nathaniel Woodward Who Came From England to Boston About 1630 by Harold Edward Woodward (Boston, NEHGS, 1984); and
- “The English Origin of Nathaniel Woodward” by Doris J. Woodward and Patricia Law Hatcher, The Maine Genealogist 20 (1998): 147-168.
2. Bridget Thompson 1622-1643 [age 20-21], daughter of John and Alice (Freeman) Thompson and first wife of George Denison. See:Great Migration Begins 1620-1633 by Robert Charles Anderson (Boston, NEHGS, 1995).
3. Mary Hapgood 1667-1693 [age 25], daughter of Shadrach and Elizabeth (Treadway) Hapgood and first wife of John Whitney. See: The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton 1878-1908: Part I, The Ancestry of Warren Francis Kempton 1817-1879 by Dean Crawford Smith (Boston, NEHGS, 1996).
Posted by: |