Longevity

How old does this woman look?

My great aunt Sylvia says her dad told her that his grandma Serena lived to be 104. I've heard a similar brag from my grandpa. Serena was my 3rd great grandmother. Her death certificate says she was "about 96" when she died.

Many people in those days died decades younger than that, so I can see why her longevity was legendary. Living that long, maybe people forgot how old they really were, but the earliest record I can find estimates her birth year as 1841, meaning she could have been as young as 84 at her death in 1925. I have learned that estimations of birth dates on census records are to be taken lightly though: sometimes a neighbor who knew little was the informant.

In 1850, Serena was living with her parents, Lewis Frasher ("Frazier") and Mary Bailey, and her siblings in Meigs County, Ohio, close to the West Virginia border. Her father was a miner. Three years later, in 1853, Serena married my 3rd great grandfather, John Preston Kelsey, who was born in New York about 1831. Shortly after we find her and John, along with all of Serena's immediate family in central Missouri where the extended family ultimately settled in and around Camden, Laclede, Osage, and Miller Counties.

By the time they retired from keeping house and farm labor, respectively, she and John had moved back and forth a couple times between Missouri and Illinois, raising 11 children along the way.  Toward the end of the Civil War in 1865, John enlisted with the Illinois infantry, leaving Serena with their five young children. He deserted at Columbus, Georgia after 6 months, and we find them back in Missouri having another baby by the end of 1866.

In the 1900 census, it was noted that while she could read, she couldn't write. And John could read and write. Also, Serena is noted as being the mother of 12 children, with 11 living. I have identified only these 11: David Jefferson (*my 2nd great grandfather), William H. Sr., Henry, John Jr., Thomas Luther, Mittie Elizabeth, Joseph, Lewis Harrison, Abbie N., James Patterson, and Frances Ellen.

From at least 1900 on, they lived with various of their grown children. John died by 1907, and Serena died in 1925 in Jefferson City, Missouri, while living with daughter Abbie.

I can't know, but can only imagine most things that made Serena, Serena. A story from my third cousin about Serena's daughter Frances gives me more things to guess about her personality.  If Serena is anything like Frances in this story, she was a feisty lady.

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As the story goes, Frances E Kelsey Stogsdill was 4 feet, 10 inches tall. Once her son came home drunk, and when Frances told him not to do it again, or else she would whip him, the son said, "You ain't big enough to whip me." The next time he came home drunk, he stripped down to his underwear and plopped down asleep. She tied him to where he was lying and whipped his bare bottom, saying something like, "Don't tell me I ain't big enough to whip you now." After that, if he came home drunk, he slept in his car.

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But, back to Serena. There are a few things I'd still love to know.

How did she manage to live so long? It looks as if her children lived from their 60's to 80's. My grandpa is 92 right now, and his sister will turn 96 in May. So, maybe we do have some longevity genes.

How did she only lose one child? Who was that child?

I hope to find out more, so I will keep digging.

John and Serena Kelsey

Read more about Serena Kelsey and family on Familysearch:

Serena Etta Frasher Kelsey: c. 1835-1925
Familysearch.org id: KLYG-NZ2 ​

My relationship:
me--> dad--> grandpa Marvin Leon Kelsey--> John Frederick Kelsey--> David Jefferson Kelsey--> Serena Etta Frasher


#52Ancestors 
Family History, Genealogy