My Views on Longevity

     I have three ancestors who lived past 100 years of age:

Ancestor	Age at Death	Locations Ancestor Lived
Cornelius Tilton (wife: Jedidah Pease) (1738-1850)	101	Dukes Co., MA, Kennebec Co., ME
William Tilton (wife: Zipporah Clark) (1790-1893)	102	Dukes Co., MA
Irvin Ellsworth Tilton (1862-1965)	103	Noble Co., OH, Kay Co., OK, Beauregard Parish, LA

     Genetics play a large part of having a long life, but nutrition does too. Good nutrition starts with the soil. Nutrients in the soil mean nutrients in your body when you eat. (Makes sense, doesn't it?) I am very interested in my genealogy and, having well over 5,000 ancestors in my database, I've learned that while everyone else in the time period was dying in their mid 60s to mid 70s, these three ancestors lived to over 100 years of age.

     There are other ancestors in the Tilton line that lived a long life. A son and a daughter of 102 year old William Tilton listed above lived to 90 and 94 years old respectively. The grandparents of 101 year old above-listed Cornelius Tilton, John Tilton and Sarah Mayhew, had two male children who lived to 90 and 98 years of age. Mary M. Tuttle who married Albert Tilton, the son of  102 year old William Tilton, lived to 95 years old. And, finally, the son of the man who immigrated from Olde to New England in 1640 named Samuel Tilton lived to 91 years old. Note: the persons in the purple-colored box are not  my direct line.

William Tilton (Zipporah Clark) (1790-1893)	102	Morgan/Noble Co., OH
Asenath Tilton (1820-1914)	94	Noble Co., OH
Benjamin B. Tilton (1832-1922)	90	Noble Co., OH
Mary Maria Tuttle (Albert Tilton) (1833-1929)	95	Noble Co., OH, Washington Co., OH
John Tilton (Sarah Mayhew) (1670-1759)	88	Dukes Co., MA
Cyrano Tilton (1700-1791)	90	Dukes Co., MA
Thomas Tilton (1702-1801)	98	Dukes Co., MA
Samuel Tilton (Hannah Moulton) (1640-1731)	91	Dukes Co., MA

     There was another related ancestral line that lived fairly long: the wife of 103 year old Irvin E. Tilton, Rosa Flanders, lived to 94 years of age. Her great-great grandparents, Thomas Flanders and Martha Webber, had two daughters who lived to 92 and 95 years of age. Martha Webber herself lived to 95 years old. And, like Samuel Tilton above, Stephen Flanders was the son of the immigrating ancestor and he lived to 99 years of age.

Rosa Flanders (Irvin E. Tilton) (1861-1955)	94	Shelby Co., IL, Beauregard Co., LA
Thomas Flanders (Martha Webber) (1774-1862)	88	Somerset Co., ME, Washington Co., OH
Martha Webber (Thomas Flanders) (1785-1880)	95	Lincoln Co., ME, Washington Co., OH
Martha Flanders (Caesar A. Tilton) (1801-1893)	92	Washington Co., OH
Hannah Flanders (1807-1902)	94	Washington Co., OH
Stephen Flanders (Abigail Carter) (1645-1744)	99	Essex Co., MA

     There is a common denominator: almost all of these people lived in places that have acidic soil. Dukes Co. and Essex Co. Massachusetts, as well as Kennebec Co., Maine have very acidic soil, probably because they're all near the ocean. Noble Co., Ohio soil is also acidic.

	Pontotoc Co., OK	Washington Co., OH	Kennebec Co., ME	Essex Co., MA	Person Co., NC
Soil Depth	0-12"	0-8"	0-7'	0-6"	0-13"
Sand	43-85%	---	---	52-72%	---
Silt	0-50%	---	---	10-50%	---
Clay	15-20%	40-50%	15-30%	3-12%	5-20%
Dry weight of soil	1.30-1.60	1.20-1.50	0.90-1.20	1.00-1.25	1.58-1.62
Soil drainage*	14.11-42.33	0.42-4.23	1.41-14.11	4.23-14.11	14.00-42.00
Volume change**	0.11-0.15	0.10-0.14	0.25-0.30	0.10-0.20	0.10-0.12
Organic matter	1.0-3.0	2.0-4.0	3.0-8.0	2.0-6.0	0.5-2.0
Wind erodibility***	3	4	6	3	5

*	How quickly the soil drains (micrometers per second).
**	Volume change between H20 content and dryness.
***	Group 1 is most susceptible to wind erosion - Group 8 is least susceptible.

      The table above shows that, for Pontotoc Co., OK, from 0-12" the soil is 43-85% sand. Two things to note:

1. Washington Co., Ohio and Kennebec Co., Maine have slow draining soils.
2. Washington Co., Ohio, Kennebec Co., Maine and Essex Co., Mass. have a lot of organic matter in their soils, compared to Pontotoc Co., OK and Person Co., NC.

The Amount of Rainfall

Ada, Oklahoma	Kay Co., Oklahoma
Chilmark, Dukes Co., Massachusetts	Salisbury, Essex Co., Massachusetts
Waterville, Kennebec Co., Maine	Fearing, Washington Co., Ohio

1. Kennebec Co., Maine has less rain than Pontotoc Co., and Kay Co., OK (I can hardly see the blue line in the Kennebec Co., ME chart) and Pontotoc Co., OK has slightly less rain than Kay Co., OK.
2. Washington Co., OH has the most rain, both in quantity and frequency (look at the blue). Noble Co., Ohio is like Washington Co., Ohio with lots of organic matter and slow-draining soil.

     In summary, Noble/Washington Co., OH:

     My family lived in Dukes Co. and Essex Co., Massachusetts from 1640-1747, then in Kennebec Co., Maine from 1747-1820 and finally in Washington and Noble Co., Ohio till about 1880. Besides acidic soil, the other common denominator is Noble and Washington counties in Ohio, both of which have mainly acidic soils. The other ancestral lines in my genealogy did not live to 90+ years of age until they came to those Ohio counties. I think a combination of good, unprocessed food grown in fertile, well-draining soil could help contribute to a lenthy life as well as genetics. Food which is sold commercially today is grown in soil drained of it's fertility by the over-use of artificial fertilizers and herbicides. If you cannot grow your own food, please let me advise you to buy organic food as much as you can. When you go to the grocery store, stick to the outer aisles - all the healthful food is found there: vegetables and fruits, dairy and meat. Also, it is advisable to get your vitamins and minerals from food and avoid synthetic nutrient supplements.

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