Statistics for Age of Death

in the "Ancient" Section of Cypress Cemetery

Using statistics for the age of death of those buried in the old section of Cypress Cemetery, one would likely expect to see a trend of generally younger age at death than today. The chart shown here indicates that through the time that people were buried in the old section (late 1600's through the early 1900's), on average, the range of ages at death is a lot higher than might be expected, with approximately 40% living beyond the age of 70. It might also be said that, where almost half live beyond the age of 60, over half die before what is today a relatively young age.

One particularly noticable but not unexpected death-age category is that which occurs from birth to age 5. The percentage of deaths within that age range is only slightly less than the percentage of deaths between both the 60 to 69 and 70 to 79 year age ranges. Of further interest is that the percentage of deaths within the birth to 5 years age range equals the percentage of deaths within the 80 to 89 year age range. There are several examples of families who lost one child after another to deaths at early ages. One can only imagine how those parents must've felt, standing over their children's graves in Cypress, even with the knowledge that a relatively high child mortality rate was not uncommon.