Week 13: Rethinking Longevity in My Family Tree

Not to be redundant but...

I have some ancestors who lived a really, really, really, really long time.

I don't think of my family as people who live long lives. I mean, I guess we do. My paternal grandmother lived to be 94 but I also grew up knowing that my maternal grandmother died very young. She was just 41. That age has always loomed very large, especially to my mother (presently 74 years old). And my father's maternal grandfather died at 53. So, again, I generally just don't think of us as living long lives; short to average at best.

But back in September 2023, I wrote a post about my 5th great-grandmother, Elizabeth Thompson-Walker, who reportedly lived to the remarkable age of 103.

At the time I thought she had to hold the longevity record in my family tree. For sure!

Genealogy has a way of humbling our assumptions, though. Doesn't it? 

I mentioned in a recent post that while digging through the records for my Loyalist ancestor, I discovered another ancestor who lived even longer than Elizabeth and I think it is worth resharing as it has been on my mind.

Another of my 5th great grandmothers, Susannah Haney-McLean, lived to be 108 years old. According to her obituary, she was born on December 28, 1759 in Castine, Maine and died on May 19, 1868 in Durham, Quebec which I think is now known as L'Avenir, outside of Drummondville. (Transcription of obituary below the image.)

Mrs. Susannah McLean

On the 1st of May, at the residence of her son in the township of Durham, in the 109th year of her age, Mrs. Susannah McLean, widow of the late Donald McLean, lieutenant in the 74th regiment of foot.

Mrs. McLean was born in the Town of Castine, Me., U.S., on the 28th December, 1759. Near the close of the Revolutionary war she was married to her said late husband, who was then stationed with his regiment at Fort George. After the close of the war they removed to New Brunswick, residing there a few years, when they returned to the United States and took up their residence in the town of Milton, Vt. They lived there twelve years, after which they went to Danville, Vt., and from thence to the to the township of Durham, Lower Canada, in 1813, where they resided until their decease.

Mrs. McLean was the mother of nine children, eight of who are living, the eldest being 83 years of age and the youngest 64. She was a truly pious woman, and greatly esteemed by all who knew her, and lived to see the fourth generation. She retained her faculties until 100 years of age, after which they began to fail and at last she became as a child. 

Both Elizabeth Thompson-Walker (1761 - August 27, 1864) and Susannah Haney-McLean (December 28, 1759 - May 19, 1868) are 4th great grandmothers to my mother. They were both of Scottish ancestry. Elizabeth was actually born in Aberdeen, Scotland, as far as I can tell. Obviously they were contemporaries. Both died in Quebec, about only 65 miles apart. Maybe they met one another at some point. They did have great grandchildren in common, my great-great grandmother Lydia McLean-Sharp (September 15, 1868 - sometime between 1911 - 1916), although they both passed before she was born, but not long before. Susannah may have known Lydia was on her way.

For someone who never thought of longevity as part of my family story, finding not only one but two direct ancestors who lived past 100 years old feels like a quiet contradiction thrown in my face. My own genealogy research constantly reminds me that the family stories we all inherit are never the whole story. Often the truth is sitting silently in a not-so-easy-to-find record; and you almost always just stumble upon it without intent. Just when you think you understand the whole story, another record surfaces and makes you revise what you already know.