Canon question.

[vraieesprit.livejournal.com]

This has been bothering me for some little while, so I thought I'd ask people who'd probably know the answer.

I've read a ton of posts in places where Ukitake and Kyouraku's age is referred to as being in the 1000 to 2000 years category.

But I cannot find anything, anywhere, which confirms or negates that fact.

Is this fan assumption or is there actually some evidence somewhere to say how old these two miscreants actually are?

Anyone know...?

Also - aside from the obvious, how many serving shinigami do people believe have noble/seireitei backgrounds as opposed to Rukongai? I'm fairly sure of the Kotetsu and the Yamada, but a lot of the other key characters seem to have Rukongai backgrounds...

Some help here please? :X