Sorry for being gone so long. My only excuse for this most recent hiatus is that, "ahv bin ah diggin' a dietch."  Not just a ditch, but one 200' long across the front of the house and back along the west side for  a water line to water the plants and trees I very unwisely planted. We live at just over 5200' in the high desert, perched on a small interior ridge, in a small valley surrounded by 7000' to 8000' foot mountains. The line needs to be at least 15" deep to prevent the winter freezing from breaking the plastic pipe I'm using. And since I'll be 86 this coming June 6th, it's proven to be a mite more of a job than I bargained for.
     Speaking of age, I got to wondering about how well we Holt folks fared in this department so I took a look at my genealogy collection. On average, Holt females lived the longest, many well into their eighties.  The longest lived Holt female that I could find was Amanda (Holt) Carse, daughter of William Humphry Holt and Rachael Caroline (Hamilton), who lived to be 104.
     Males didn't fare as well, most cashing in in their mid-fifties to early seventies with just a very limited few reaching eighty. My grandfather, Franklin Raymond Holt, born in 1875, lived to be 96 years, 6 months and 2 days, and up until a few years back, was the longest lived Holt male I could find. As of today I have found that a new star has risen, Donald Leroy Holt, born in 1910, the oldest son of  my grandfather's youngest brother, Clyde and Bertha Matilda (Brenner) Holt, is 102, and whom, as far as I know, is still living, thus making him the longest lived Holt male in the entire line going back to C1400.  Update: Donald died 8 June 2012.