52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 3 - Longevity

Before deciding on what to write for this prompt, I took a look at the ages at death of the ancestors in my family tree. There were a couple of people that lived to be over 100, but they were related through marriage and not in my direct lines. There were also a lot of people that I don't have birth or death dates for, so I still have some research to do there.

As I looked at the people that lived into their 90s, I noticed that a lot of them were descendants of my Hagedorn family. The Hagedorns were born in Germany and came to the US in 1834. Hermann Hagedorn was born on February 13, 1778 and died in Mercer County, Ohio on October 1, 1877 at the age of 93. Hermann's wife C. Maria Elizabeth Tebben was born in 1786 in Hannover, Germany and died on October 1, 1877, in Mercer County, Ohio, at the age of 91. That's amazing to think that a couple born in the 1700s both lived into their 90s!

The graphic below shows my direct line from the Hagedorn family and their ages at death.

Hermann and Elizabeth had two sons and three daughters between 1813 and 1825, so the children were born in Germany too. Their daughter Mary Katherine Hagedorn Gast was my 3x great-grandmother. She was born on May 7, 1823 and died on Nov 11, 1915 in Maria Stein, Mercer County, Ohio at the age of 92. Five children survived her, including my 2x great-grandfather, John Henry Gast. An interesting note from her obituary is that she lived to see the golden wedding anniversary of her daughter Mrs. Henry Schaefer.

John Henry Gast was born on October 28, 1849 and married Catherine M. Desch on April 23, 1872. They had nine children in 19 years, including my great-grandmother Mary Catherine Gast. John died on April 26, 1934, in Celina, Ohio, at the age of 84.

My great-grandmother Mary Catherine Gast was born on March 8, 1875. She married George Francis Pulskamp on August 18, 1899, in Mercer County, Ohio. They had eight children in 17 years, including my grandmother Anna Lee Pulskamp. Mary died on December 7, 1967, in Celina, Ohio, at the age of 92.

My grandmother Anna Lee Pulskamp and her twin sister Emma Lee Pulskamp were born on June 11, 1910, in Celina, Ohio. Sadly, Anna Lee died a few days after childbirth in 1934 and only lived to be 24 years old. Emma Lee died on March 15, 2001, in Celina, Ohio, at the age of 90. Their brother Andreas lived to be 91 and their sister Marie Catherine lived to be 95, so there was a lot of longevity in their family. I'm hoping some of it was passed down to my generation!

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.