My husband’s great-grandmother Anna Kelly and most of her sisters all had long lives. Anna lived to be 88. Her sister Mary lived to be 83, Katherine 95, Margaret 93, and Nora possibly 104! There were two who didn’t live as long, Ellen was 59 and Alice died before she was 54. And two brothers Michael who died before age 51 and John who was 66.
When I started researching this branch of my husband’s family I only knew about Anna, Margaret, and Nora. I found the other siblings in newspaper articles and then tracked them down on census records.
As was often the case on census records, people’s ages were not consistent. That’s why I say Nora was possibly 104 because her birthdate is inconsistent on various records.
Here’s Nora’s info
1892 census – age 14 – Calculated birth year 1878
1900 census – age 20 – Birthdate June 1879 (calculated birth year would be 1880)
1910 census – age 31 – Calculated birth year 1879
1915 census – age 31 – Calculated birth year 1884
1920 census – age 37 – Calculated birth year 1883
1925 census – age 35 – Calculated birth year 1890 (this one probably should have had her age listed as 45, then the birth year would be calculated as 1880)
1930 census – age 48 – Calculated birth year 1882
1940 census – age 62 – Calculated birth year 1878
Social Security Death Index says born August 14, 1877
Oswego Palladium Times, Saturday August 16, 1980 says she celebrated her 103th birthday on Wednesday August 13 – Calculated birth year 1877
Oswego County Messenger, Friday Aug. 14, 1981 says it was her 104th birthday – Calculated birth year 1877
As you can see she got younger in her 30s and then got older again later in life. It certainly looks like 1877 or 1878 were the most likely candidates for the correct year. I haven’t yet, but I would like to try to find her birth certificate in Savannah, New York to see if I can nail down the correct date. I wonder if she even knew exactly what year she was born.
Anna’s age varied greatly over the different census records too with her birth year ranging from 1868 to 1881. That’s quite a range! But I assume that the oldest one from when she was 2 years old would be correct, which would have made her 88 when she died in 1956.
Here’s Anna’s info
1870 census – age 2 – Calculated birth year 1868
1900 census – age 32 – Birthdate February 1868
1910 census – age 38 – Calculated birth year 1872
1915 census – age 39 – Calculated birth year 1876
1920 census – age 44 – Calculated birth year 1876
1925 census – age 45 – Calculated birth year 1880
1930 census – age 49 – Calculated birth year 1881
1940 census – age 65 – Calculated birth year 1875
Mary’s age was consistent over the census records so her age at her death seems to have definitely been 83.
Here’s Mary’s info
1870 census – age 11 – Calculated birth year 1859
1880 census – age 21 – Calculated birth year 1859
1892 census – age 34 – Calculated birth year 1858
1900 census – age 41 – Calculated birth year 1859
1905 census – age 46 – Calculated birth year 1859
1910 census – age 51 – Calculated birth year 1859
1915 census – age 56 – Calculated birth year 1859
1920 census – age 61 – Calculated birth year 1859
1925 census – age 66 – Calculated birth year 1859
1930 census – age 71 – Calculated birth year 1859
I don’t have a lot of info about Katherine. Here’s what little I do have. If the 1870 census was correct she actually would have been 96, not 95 when she died.
Here’s Katherine’s info
1870 census – age 7 – Calculated birth year 1863
Obituary #1 in 1960 – Says she was born October 17, 1864
Obituary #2 in 1960 – Says she was 95 – Calculated birth year 1864, because she died in January, so she hadn’t had her birthday yet that year
I don’t have a ton of info about Margaret either. She lived to be somewhere between 91 and 94.
Here’s Margaret’s info
1910 census – age 35 – Calculated birth year 1875
1930 census – age 52 – Calculated birth year 1878
1940 census – age 64 – Calculated birth year 1876
The Kelly sisters must have gotten those longevity genes from their father Michael Kelly.
Here’s his info
1863 Civil War Draft Record – age 38 – Calculated birth year 1825
1870 census – age 47 – Calculated birth year 1823
1892 census – age 68 – Calculated birth year 1824
1900 census – age 73 – Birthdate October 1826 (would not have had birthday yet that year, so age 73 is correct)
1905 census – age 81 – Calculated birth year 1824
1910 census – age 78 – Calculate birth year 1832 (think this is a mistake)
1915 census – age 90 – Calculated birth year 1825
It is possible that his death date was January 24, 1917. I still need to verify that. If that is correct then he was somewhere between 91 and 94, just like his daughter Margaret, when he died.
The link to the Kelly family can be found here https://myfamgen.com/kelly-family/.