Friday, January 27, 2012

Two grandsons of the 10th US President are still alive

Thanks to the New York Magazine for confirming a story that has been going the rounds for a few days and thus providing us with our Trivial Fact of the Day.

John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States of America, was born in 1790 and in office from 1841 to 1845. Remarkably, two of his grandsons are still alive.

One of them, Harrison Tyler, explains how this has come about in an interview with the magazine:
"Both my grandfather - the president - and my father, were married twice. And they had children by their first wives. And their first wives died, and they married again and had more children. And my father was 75 when I was born, his father was 63 when he was born."
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2 comments:

  1. Niles28 January, 2012 14:51

    I am reminded of my post about the photo of Mozart's wife

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  2. Simon Beard30 January, 2012 23:41

    There is also the story of the US civil war widow who died in 2004 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3765811.stm).

    My own experience was of speaking to a man a few years ago who's father and grandfather had both gone to the same Oxford college as I had. I told him where my room was and he said his father had lived in the same building in the 1870s. I then mentioned that I was born in Hong Kong and he told me that his Grandfather had been there shortly after it became a British Colony in 1841.

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