Life expectancy

[markem]

No, it isn't another "how are cigars bad for you" thread

I know that there are several people, perhaps more, who have looked in to their family trees. My BIL has worked his side of the family back to about 1000 AD and our side back to about 1400 AD.

Recently, I've seen several places note that today the average life span is about 25 years more than in the middle ages. Nice, but it is an average and includes the very high infant mortality rate (IMO, the real reason people were encouraged to have large families). Recently, I read an article from a genealogist where it was asserted that if you remove the infant mortality rate from both groups, then the life spans were about equal with the middle ages jumping up to within 5 years of the current value.

Has anyone looked at this part of their family tree? My BIL has the family tree in a database and a quick check seems to bear out the article's information, at least for our two families. It would be nice to know if others are seeing the same thing.