Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Birth Order in Your Line

For Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this week, Randy Seaver has us looking at birth order in our families.  Not much to be gained from this, I suspect, but an interesting exercise nonetheless.

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:

(1) Pick one of your ancestral lines — any one:  patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc.  Pick a long one if you can.

(2) Tell us which position in the birth order your ancestor was in each generation.  For example, "third child, first son."  Also list how many children were born to these parents.

(3) Share your birth order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.

Since Randy recommended choosing a long line if possible, I started with my father, zigged to his mother, and then zagged to her father, because I know I have several generations of Gauntts documented.  I could go further back with them, but I haven't entered all the information I have into my database.  I also could have gone further with the Sellerses, but just not emphasizing them anymore.

1.  Janice Marie Sellers (1962– ):  first child, first daughter of Bertram Lynn and Myra (Meckler) Sellers (2 daughters, 1 son)

2.  Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. (1935– ):  only child, only son of Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. and Anna Gauntt

3.  Anna Gauntt (1893–1986):  second child, first daughter of Thomas Kirkland and Jane (Dunstan) Gauntt (5 sons, 5 daughters)

4.  Thomas Kirkland Gauntt (1870–1951):  eighth child, fifth son of James and Amelia (Gibson) Gauntt (3 daughters, 6 sons)

4.  James Gauntt (1831–1889):  second child and first son of Hananiah Selah and Abigail (Atkinson) Gaunt (5 daughters, 4 sons)

5.  Hananiah Selah Gaunt (1795–1852):  fourth child and fourth son of Hananiah and Rebecca (Mulliner) Gaunt (5 sons, 1 daughter, but not sure all children have been documented)

6.  Hananiah Gaunt (1762–1799):  first child and first son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Borton) Gaunt (5 sons, 3 daughters)

7.  Joseph Gaunt (1740–1806):  second child and second son of Hananiah and Ann (Ridgway) Gaunt (2 sons, 2 daughters, again not sure all children have been documented)

My averages are:

• child number:  3
• number of children:  7.14

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Longest Ancestral Marriage

It's Saturday, which means another interesting genealogy challenge from Randy Seaver for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!), is:

(1) Marcia Philbrick wrote Celebrating 50 Years today on her Heartland Genealogy blog and suggested it for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, so here it is:

(2) How many of your ancestors were married for FIFTY years?  What is the longest marriage of your ancestors in your tree (from marriage to first death of a spouse, or divorce)?  Consider, say, the last six generations to make it manageable!

(3) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers.

I saw this challenge and thought I was going to have only one pair of ancestors who made it to 50 years.  I was wrong about that!  On the other hand, Randy had 52 couples, while I have a total of only 18, and I had to go all the way back to 6th-great-grandparents to get that many.

Parents

• Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. and Myra Roslyn Meckler:  16 years (1961–1977)

Grandparents

• Abraham Meckler and Lillyan E. Gordon:  50 years (1939–1989)
• Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. and Anna Gauntt:  0 years (They were never married.)

Great-grandparents

• Cornelius Elmer Sellers and Laura May Armstrong:  15 years (1903–1918)
• Thomas Kirkland Gauntt and Jane Dunstan:  59 years (1891–1951)
• Morris Meckler and Minne Zelda Nowicki:  36 years (1900–1936)
• Joe Gordon and Sarah Libby Brainin:  41 years (1914–1955)

Great-great-grandparents

• James Gauntt and Amelia Gibson:  38 years (1851–1889)
• Frederick Cleworth Dunstan and Martha Winn:  15 years (1858–1873)
• Joel Armstrong and Sarah Ann Lippincott:  about 22 years (1878–about 1900)
• Gershon Itzhak Nowicki and Dora Yelsky:  60 years (1876–1936)
• Avigdor Gorodetsky and Esther Leah Schneiderman:  about 19 years (about 1889–1908)
• Morris Brainin and Rose Dorothy Jaffe:  about 39 years (about 1881–1930)

Great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Selah Gaunt and Abigail Atkinson:  about 23 years (about 1829–1852)
• Richard Dunstan and Jane Coleclough:   21 years (1833–1865)

Great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Gaunt and Rebecca Mulliner:  about 14 years (about 1785–1799)
• Joel Armstrong and Catherine Stackhouse:  30 years (1823–1854)

Great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Joseph Gaunt and Elizabeth Borton:  44 years (1762–1806)

Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Gaunt and Ann Ridgway:  61 years (1730–1792)

The longest marriage I have recorded is 61 years, for my 6th-great-grandparents Hananiah Gaunt and Ann Ridgway.

The lengths of the marriages range from 14 to 61 years.  Two of the marriages were ended by divorce; the others ended with the death of one spouse.

The average length of the 18 marriages is 33.5 years.

Four marriages of the marriages lasted 50 years or longer.  That's 22.2% of the marriages.  Randy had 15 of 52 marriages last 50 or more years, which is 28.9%.