Letting the youngest catch-up

While looking into distant auntie Betsy, I wondered about her brother Benjamin's family.

He and his wife had seven children, and the way things turned out has proved very fair in terms of marking each milestone.

Edwin (1839), Jane (1841), Joseph (1842), James (1844), Annie (1846), Sarah (1848) and William (1849). Several of them had the middle name of Haine whilst Jane had the middle name of Eliza. Joseph and Sarah had no middle names at all.

Eldest grandchild: this was from Edwin, child number 1.

Eldest great-grandchild: this was Ernest Court (1898), from James, child number 4.

Eldest great-great-grandchild: this was Kenneth Duffett (1932), from Annie, child number 5.

Eldest great-great-great-grandchild: this was Verna (1960), from William, child number 7.

Eldest great-great-great-great-grandchild: this was Anthony (1989), from Jane, child number 2.

Child number 3 was the first to be widowed (in 1870).

Child number 6 was the first to die (in 1870).

Incidentally child number 1's line became extinct in 2004 and child number 6's in 1954.

The time to next generation is 30 years each time, now bear in mind this is for the eldest. For example I belong to the same generation as Verna but am somewhat younger, so the average time-per-generation for me from Benjamin is 32 years.

We saw in an extreme case how Betsy's average time to next generation was 23 years when measuring the eldest. She was also 20 years his senior. Within a hundred years, Betsy was two generations ahead of Benjamin.

But mostly here I just wanted to remark on the unusual way the distribution of 'firsts' is shared among five of Benjamin's children.