Many people seem to be under the impression that average lifespans were different in olden times. I once heard that the the average lifespan in ancient Rome was such that a man 35 years of age was considered old. It just wasn't true. People lived about the same age as they do now.
The misconception probably came from actuarial statistics. Since many people died prematurely, it makes the AVERAGE age much younger. But people still lived to be 100 or more. I have browsed some areas where more than 9/10 of all deaths were young children and infants - you can imagine what that does to the average - but in the same area there were many deaths of people in their 80's and 90's.
Furthermore, since traditions were different, it was not uncommon for a man to be marrying and having children in his 60's, 70's, and beyond, and the girls they took for wives in their old age were often very very young. Many, many women and young girls died in childbirth. Infant mortality was terrible. Disease, infection, war, and poverty took their toll.
So you still have about 100 years of records to search to find a person's death record, unless you have other clues.

Stuart Armstrong

Barbara,

This is what I found which may be what you already have but here goes:

Avelino Guerrero and Quirina Cortez (aka Cortes) had the following children:

JE. DE JESUS GUERRERO CORTES, ch. 7 May 1864, San Jose de Analco,
Guadalajara, Jalisco [C603861 (1863-1871), film # 0038595, serial #00620]
MARIA DOMINGA GUERRERO CORTEZ, ch 6 Aug 1866, San Jose de Analco,
Guadalajara, Jalisco [C603861 (1863-1871), film # 0038595]
JULIO GUERRERO CORTES, ch. 1 Aug 1868, San Jose de Analco, Guadalajara,
Jalisco [C603861 (1863-1871), film # 0038595, serial #04589]
J. ADOLFO GUERRERO CORTEZ, ch. 31 May 1870, San Jose de Analco, Guadalajara,
Jalisco [C603861 (1863-1871), film # 0038595, serial #06373]
JOSE AGUSTIN GUERRERO CORTEZ, ch. 3 May 1873, San Jose de Analco,
Guadalajara, Jalisco [C603862 (1871-1875), film # 0038596, serial #01333]

I could be wrong but I think that Ahualulco del Mercado is also a part of
Guadalajara?

Hope this helps.
--Esther L. Jordan

On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 12:14 PM, wrote:

> I found my maternal grandfather's baptismal record on family search. He was
> born in 1864. Now I just need to order the film to find his date of birth.
>
> Does anyone know what the average life span was back in the late 1800's? I
> now need to determine his date of death. Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Barbara Guerrero
>