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Week 50 (9.23.01 - 9.29.01) Grave Trends Go to the graveyard. For more than 50 but less than 100 gravestones note the year born and years lived for each subject. Plot all this manually on a graph (x axis is year born, y axis is years lived). Consider the trends you see, then mark on the graph the year you were born . . . and how old you think you will live to.

Collected Data M/F First Last Birth Death Age M Milo Camp 1798 1873 75 F Anne Birdsall 1799 1892 93 M John Green 1820 1899 79 F Caroline Cole 1821 1889 68 M William Huntington 1825 1907 82 F Sabrina Gardner 1826 1914 88 F Justina Wilbrecht 1831 1914 83 F Isablle Johnson 1838 1907 69 F Mary Elma Petit 1843 1918 75 F Florentine Krugel 1843 1933 90 M George Farnham 1844 1908 64 M William Shuey 1844 1936 92 M John Clark 1847 1938 91 M Charles Martin 1849 1921 72 M Frank Turner 1850 1923 73 M Augusta Winter 1851 1933 82 M Fred Pillsbury 1852 1892 40 M Frank Warden 1856 1928 72 M Hugh Harrison 1857 1899 42 F Virginia Smith 1858 1900 42 F Bertha Melchert 1858 1883 25 F Minnie Shepley 1859 1941 82 M Lorin Lovejoy 1861 1904 43 F Fannie Gill 1862 1952 90 M Charles Taylor 1863 1950 87 F Jennie Taylor 1863 1941 78 F Anna Crowder 1863 1952 89 F Agnes Hull 1865 1922 57 M George Barr 1865 1936 71 M William Frisbie 1869 1963 94 F Annie Blaisdell 1872 1962 90 M Robert Chute 1873 1947 74 M Charles Riddle 1873 1961 88 M Leroy Barnum 1874 1956 82 F Elsie Wilbright 1874 1954 80 F Florence Fisk 1875 1901 26 M Herbert Severson 1876 1951 75 F Edith Knight Belden 1877 1964 87 F Bertha Grabau 1879 1959 80 F Mary Elma Gilmore 1881 1964 83 F Dolly Field 1881 1961 80 F Elizabeth Cochran 1881 1961 80 M Loyd Emmans 1884 1982 98 F Marion Cade 1886 1973 87 F Elsie Copeman 1886 1961 75 M Carl Ristau 1886 1966 80 F Clare Cobb 1891 1977 86 F Sophronia Smith 1892 1914 22 F Lillian Opsall 1896 1970 74 M Emil Wahlund 1897 1987 90 F Alice Solberg 1900 1996 96 M Author Raddatz 1900 1979 79 M Daniel Daly 1905 1984 79 F Hilda Lastine 1905 1996 91 M Edward Wells 1906 1986 80 M Wellington Tully 1908 1983 75 F Harriet Kutter 1911 1985 74 M Carl Holmes 1911 1992 81 F Courine Pettey 1912 1996 84 M Wibur Adams 1913 1986 73 F Marion Cashman 1919 1987 68 F Patricia Hedges 1919 1989 70 M Za Yeng Lor 1922 1997 75 F Evenlyn Anderson 1923 1993 70 M Roger Volker 1924 1994 70 M Richard Myers 1929 1986 57 M Leo Marxen 1934 1994 60 M David Hargrove 1938 1990 52 M Lorenz Buchanan 1943 1985 42 F Susan Randall 1958 1975 17 F Dawn Grant 1964 1990 26 M Karl Walker 1965 1981 16 M Kevin Sinz 1972 1990 18

Findings and Comments: The Estimated Answer: 84.5 Years of Age, April 2044 For this project I surveyed 74 graves at two cemeteries: Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis; and Forestville Cemetery in Forestville, Minnesota. My methodology was quite simple, try to get an even balance of men and women and a wide spread of birth dates. In hindsight, I wonder if I should have collected just male data? I'll look into this later... As might be expected, the sample was small and the variance large, making the results rough at best. Untimely deaths stand out quite clearly, while the gradual increase in life-span is only slightly evident. In order not to overly skew the results, I decided to throw away the birth dates falling after 1900 since many the 20th century graves only reflected those who died an early death. I also overlayed a grid displaying one standard deviation to help illustrate the upward trend. As a footnote, even after completing two projects involving cemeteries, I a still confused by their layout. There were many family monuments for which I could not find any individual family members to gather dates for. Am I missing something?

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