The Christening

On a spring day in 1751, 24-year-old Winifred Alley brought her child to the baptismal font to be christened in Bristol Parish, Virginia.

The event probably occurred in the still-new brick church on Well’s Hill, the highest point overlooking Petersburg. Winifred’s father served as sexton there.

Shadrick–or Shade, as the child was called–was born into a world where life was dangerous and brief. Tobacco was used as currency. Wolves still outnumbered people in much of North America. And Shadrick, true to his biblical namesake, lived a full and adventurous life.

Shade took up arms against the king in the spring of 1776. He served eight tours of duty for the patriot cause, and he was there when George Washington accepted the surrender of the British commander at Yorktown.

Shade was my 6x-great grandfather, and he saw 84 summers.

A Legacy of Longevity

Genealogy has always been a passion of mine. But it took on new importance when I began taking care of my health.

You see, many of my ancestors lived very long lives. And I reached a point last summer where it appeared that my own life might be very brief.

I’m going to talk about my direct paternal Alley ancestors today; specifically, the men who gave me not only my last name, but also my Y-chromosome.

My grandfather Chester Alley lived to be 89.

My great-grandfather Charley Alley lived to be 93.

His father Clarence Alley lived to be 96.

His father Milas Alley, a veteran of the Civil War, lived to be 84.

Milas’s father Hamlin Alley and his grandfather Howell Lafayette Alley (who was Shade Alley’s son) both lived to be 80.

In fact, if you averaged the lifespans of the seven generations of male Alley ancestors from that spring day at the colonial baptismal font in 1751 to the day my grandfather Chester Alley passed away in 2012, the average age is 87.

That’s a lot of living in 261 years.

And did I mention that several of my great-grandfather’s siblings lived well into their nineties? And that his last surviving child, my great-aunt Cleda, turned 93 a few months ago?

I suppose you could say that the Alleys have a longevity gene.

But good genes are only part of the equation. My ancestors lived long lives as much because of the good choices they made as because of any good genes.

Words of Wisdom

My great-grandfather Charley Alley used to say that you should always leave the table feeling a little bit hungry.

He was a slender, even-keeled fellow, in possession of good health and in command of his faculties until the end. He rarely lost his temper, and he usually went to bed around sunset or shortly thereafter.

He never went on a fad diet. He probably never read any motivational books aside from the Bible.

Charley didn’t learn his mealtime moderation from an Internet meme. That wisdom came from a lifetime of hard work and keen observation.

Changing Times

Life expectancy in the United States has declined in recent years, in what one recent Washington Post headline calls a “dismal trend not seen since World War I.”

Although an increase in drug overdoses and suicides have contributed to this trend, a major culprit remains obesity-related illness, the vast majority of which is preventable with proper diet and exercise habits.

Inheriting good genes is like getting a good job; how far you go with them depends almost entirely on the choices you make each day. The fact that I have inherited a 260-year longevity streak means nothing if I fuel my body with junk food and allow my muscles to atrophy from lack of use.

A Dip in the Gene Pool

Genetics is, of course, a very complex topic, and my own knowledge of it is cursory at best. I would hate for anyone to walk away from this post with the false assumption that determining how long one lives is as simple as determining how long one’s grandfather or great-grandfather lived. That is not the case at all.

Shade Alley’s genes, for example, may only comprise a fraction of my own genetic makeup. Like everyone else, I had 256 6x-great-grandparents. That number grows exponentially with each generation. We all have 4,096 10x-great-grandparents. At 18x-great-grandparents, the number goes past 1 million individuals.

The distribution of those genetic traits in my own body seems, by my feeble estimation, completely random.

What is not random, however, are the conscious choices I make each day regarding my own health and well-being. What I eat, how often and how much I exercise, and how much sleep I get will no doubt go a long way in increasing the number of years in my life.

But the joy I get from being able to play with my daughters and roam the woods and fields at leisure most definitely adds life to my years.

That is the kind of fullness I’ve found while trying to learn how to leave the table still a little bit hungry.