402 



The Journal of Heredity 



j^Taiidmolher was of the same age as 

 her husband (she is more Hkely to have 

 been younger than older), the average 

 length of the three generations in 

 Wilhclm's ancestry is only seventy-nine 

 \'ears. What an exceptional record 

 this is, can only be appreciated by 

 genealogists who have sought other 

 cases where three generations were 

 compressed within so short a span of 

 years. It would be hard to duplicate. 

 Considering Wilhelm's present jDosition 

 on the world's stage, it is fortunate that 

 the missing great-grandmother relie\'es 

 this Association from the necessity of 

 deciding how great a man he is. His 

 admirers may look on him as a striking 

 refutation of Mr. Redfield; his despisers 

 will take the opposite view. As Wil- 

 helm married young, the case may be 

 made still more striking by extending 

 the genealogy to his son, the present 

 Crown Prince. 



Various figures indicate that the 

 average length of a generation in 

 Pntssia is considerably greater than it 

 is in New England. The average age 

 at marriage is given by Mulhall (Diet, 

 of Statistics) as 29.7 for men and 27.1 

 for women. It is generally calculated 

 by those who deal with vital statistics 

 that the average mother is six years 

 older than the average bride. '^ From 

 this it follows that the average genera- 

 tion in Prussia must be 34 or 35 years, 

 while Frederick's ancestry represents 

 generations of less than twenty-nir.e 

 years, and Wilhelm's jjrobably about 

 twenty-six. 



A careful study made on Mann.hcim 

 families gives even higher results than 

 the above. Professor Schotf* took 4,000 

 families who existed in Mannheim at 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 and followed them down to the begin- 

 ning of the twentieth. He found the 

 average difference between the age of a 

 man and his eldest son was 33^4 years, 

 between a man and his eldest gran.dson, 

 66-{ years, between a man and his 



' Dr. Bell's data are presented in the Ih-hin Iilin-ii<ih Rtrordcr, Vol. xix, June 12, 1<)U). 'I'lie 

 editor of the Joirnal of Hkkkdity is alone re.sponsihle for the calculation j,'iven above. 



' This holds K"f>d in Great Hritain and vSweden. In the Hyde family the difference is seven 

 years. 



" Schott, S. Alte Mannheirner Familien, ein Reitrag zur Familicnstatistik des l'>. lahr- 

 hunderts. I^Iannheim und Leipzij;, 1910. J. Rensheimer. 



the first step to be taken in this dis- 

 cussion, and one to which Mr. Redfield 

 has not given sufficient attention. He 

 has calculated the length of paternal 

 generation in old American families as 

 33.^3 years, and given this universal 

 application. The average of the genera- 

 tions of the two sexes is the correct 

 measure for this purj^ose. From a more 

 extcn.sive compilation of data by 

 Alexander Graham Bell, on marriages 

 in the Hyde family of America,^ the 

 length of a paternal generation appears 

 to be 35.4 years and of a maternal 

 generation 33.1 years, giving an average 

 for the two sexes of 33.2 years. By 

 whatever standard, Lincoln's ancestry, 

 as far as known, is found to represent 

 rapid breeding. 



FREDERICK II, "tHE GREAT" 



Frederick the Great of Prussia was 

 born in 1712 when his father was 24 

 and his mother 25 years old. The ages 

 of his four grand])arents were 31, 20, 27 

 and 21, a remarkable record. His four 

 great-grandfathers furnish the ages 37, 

 39, 31, 42. His great-grandmothers 

 ha\e not been mentioned by any of the 

 corres]X)ndents ; if their ages were 

 learned they might easily be found low 

 enough to bring the whole pedigree 

 within the scope of Mr. Redfield's 

 offer. Frederick the Great was ad- 

 mittedly a man of remarkable talents 

 but as his jjedigree was not submitted 

 in a complete form, this association is 

 spared the embarrassment of trying to 

 decide exactly how great he was. He 

 remains, nevertheless, as a real difficulty 

 for Mr. Redfield's hyi)othesis. 



WII.HKLM II, "the good" 



The |>edigree of William II, the 

 present Kaiser of Germany, is the most 

 complete received. It lacks only one 

 great-grandmother of being comi)letc 

 for three generations, and shows a 

 remarkable record of rapid breeding. 

 If it be supi)osed that this missing 



