Longevity claims

Longevity claims are claims to extreme longevity (usually 110 or older) that either cannot be verified or for whom only some evidence is available. Longevity claims differ from existing verified supercentenarian cases, and also from longevity myths in that either some evidence exists, the case has not been proven false, and/or the claim was not constructed as a result of a longevity myth, which tends to focus on the "village elder" concept, "fountain of youth" concept, nationalist mythology, racial mythology, patriarchal mythology, etc. One test of this is the idea, put forth by William Thoms in the 1870s, of the 100th birthday test: is there evidence of the person claiming to be age 100 some 10 or more years prior to their claim? This test does not prove a person's age (indeed, Susie Brunson passed this test, but later was shown to have exaggerated her age well before this time). However, this test does separate the typical pension-claim longevity exaggeration (which tends to run to about age 115 up to 125) and the "myth of longevity" claim, whereby a spontaneous claim is made that a certain village elder is "150" or "167." F.e.: Bir Narayan Chaudhuri may have claimed to be 141 years old in 1998, but there was no evidence of a 100th birthday party 41 years earlier.

Demographic gerontology recognizes three primary stages of extreme longevity claims: pre-literate, transitional, and modern. The claims of pre-literate society tend to correspond to longevity myths. The age of the oldest village elder is often a source of pride in a rural area, far from the metropole, lacking not only official records but also local records. The illiteracy rate is usually very high, such that the highest age claims are often correlated with areas with the lowest rates of literacy. In the second stage, transitional, some records are kept, such as church records, but there is no central registry of record-keeping, and the system of records does not extend to the poor. It has been shown that in this stage, age claims tend to fall from the 150+ range to about 115-130. Also of note, a few cases may be true, but most are exaggerated. The third and final stage of the demographic longevity transition involves the "modern" or "literate" stage. This stage sees official recordkeeping for 100% of the population. This stage was first achieved in Sweden in 1749; in England and Wales in 1837; in Scotland in 1855; in the USA in 1933. Because it takes over 100 years for the persons born (or claiming to be born) before the stage began to claim extreme longevity, often the records only begin achieving accuracy a century later: hence, the Swedish records achieved accuracy around 1860. The United States is still in the transitional stage. Currently, the oldest U.S. claimant is Pearl Gartrell (who claims to be 119), while the oldest person whose age can be documented is Japanese woman Yone Minagawa, who is 114.

A statement mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (c. 250) is the earliest (or at least one of the earliest) references about (plausible centenarian) longevity given by a scientist, the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (c. 185 – c. 120 B.C.), who, according to the doxographer, assured that the philosopher Democritus of Abdera (c. 470/460 – c. 370/360 B.C.) lived 109 years. All other account given by the ancients about the age of Democritus, appears to, without giving any specific age, agree in the fact that the philosopher lived over 100 years; this, however, does not prove that he really lived to 109 years. Still, many ancient Greek philosophers are thought to have lived over the age of 90 (e.g.: Xenophanes of Colophon, c. 570/565 – c. 475/470 B.C., Pyrrho of Ellis, c. 360 - c. 270 B.C., Eratosthenes of Cirene c. 285 – c. 190 B.C., etc.). These claims are more within reason than claims, for example, Epimenides of Crete (VII, VI centuries B.C.) of whom it is said to have lived 154, 157 or 290 years, like it has been said about countless elders even during the last centuries (as well as in present time) being these cases most likely (or at least in most cases), exaggerations if not deliberate frauds.

Problems with documentation process

In the transitional period of record-keeping, records tend to exist for the wealthy and upper-middle classes, but are often spotty and non-existent for the poor. In the United States, birth registration did not begin in Mississippi until 1912 and was not universal until 1933. Hence, there is the problem of many cases whereby no actual birth record exists. Since some were recorded in the census, however, there may be obtainable evidence that tends to support the age claim. Sometimes, however, a single year may be off. In the case of Susie Gibson, for example, the family (and Susie herself) claimed her to be born October 31, 1889, but no birth document has been located. The earliest record available, the 1900 census, lists her as born Oct. 1890. Hence, since the 1900 census is a proximate record (not written in 1890), it can be said that there may be a 95% certainty that Susie was at least 115, but it's still possible that she was in fact 116.

In some cases a person may just miss the standards required for acceptance. For example, Rosa Williams of College Park, Georgia died in January 2001, allegedly born in May 1886. The 1910 census listed her as 22, suggesting she was born in May 1887 or May 1888. Hence, we cannot be certain of her age, but some evidence exists to support the claim. This type of case is said to be "partially validated."

In another type of case, the only records that exist are late-life documents. Because age inflation often occurs in adulthood (to avoid military service; to apply for a pension early, or because the government began record-keeping during their mid-lifetime), unverified claims also exist. Unverified claims are less likely to be true (because the records are written later), but are still possible. However, because demographic mortality tables show ages above 130 to be extremely unlikely to be true (on the order of trillions to one odds), it would be best to assume that claims to age 130 and above are automatically false, and hence best served by longevity myths. The purpose of longevity claims, then, is to serve as an inventory for the gray area between validated (certainly true cases) and mythical (scientifically false cases that nonetheless may be accepted as valid under non-scientific discourses, such as religion). For example, Hanna Barysevich of Belarus, who claimed to have been 118, can neither be verified nor debunked, and the age claim was within the realm of possibility (the maximum proven age being 122). Hence, her case was a longevity claim.

Lists of longevity claims

The below lists are meant to show the present and past range of longevity claims, in the gray area between verified and impossible. The lists should be viewed as a spectrum, with the lower ages being more likely to be true and the higher ages less likely to be true.

These lists also serve the purpose of showing the wide range of distribution of extreme claims, which refutes the contention that such claims are particular to only certain "longevity villages". The lists also help to dispel the notion that one claimant should be accepted (without records) while ignoring all the other claims out there (which would also have to be accepted if records weren't required). Finally, because a few of the claims may be true but records do not exist or have not been found, the lists serve the third purpose of categorizing those gray-area cases (such as the one of Maria Strelnikova of Russia) that could be true, but have not (yet) been proven as such.

Partially-validated cases (presumed to be living)

These cases have some evidence of validity, but do not meet the criteria for full validation. F.e.: the person may be listed in the 1930 census or Social Security Death Index (in the U.S.).

• Richard Washington of Darlington, South Carolina claims birth April 13 1893
• Maxima Cabrera-Alfaro of Uruguay claims birth Nov 18 1893
• Virginia Call of Illinois claims birth Jan 4 1894

Recent claims with no records (presumed to be living)

These cases have no publicly available early-life records to support them, but have been made in the press. At the very least, the person should have a claimed year, month and day of birth to be listed here. Claims that don't should be listed in the article about longevity myths. Only claims of at least 113 are included here.

• Moloko Temo of South Africa claims birth July 4, 1874
• Habib Miyan of India claims birth May 22, 1878
• Maria Olivia da Silva of Brazil claims birth Feb 28, 1880
• Tsunyelo Dora Muzila of South Africa claims birth May 4, 1880
• Du Pinhua of China claims birth Apr 22 1886
• Alberto Yoip of Cuba claims birth May 12 1886
• Noninji Elizabeth Bete of South Africa claims birth May 21 1886
• Ida Stewart of Jamaica claims birth Nov 5 1886
• Ruperto Hernandez of Nicaragua claims birth June 13 1887
• Józef Piotrowski of Poland claims birth Sept 7 1887
• Pearl Gartrell of Jacksonville, Florida claims birth Apr 1 1888
• LaJean Smith of Arkansas claims birth June 23 1889
• Floripes Luzia Damasio of Brazil claims birth Dec 13 1889
• Clara MacLeash of Jamaica claims birth Jan 1 1890
• Katie Bruce of Saint Louis, Missouri claims birth Mar 11 1890
• Maria Strelnikova of Russia claims birth Mar 15 1890
• Pa Igboezu Asoegwu of Nigeria claims birth April 20 1890
• Khabibamal Khamitova of Russia claims birth July 1 1890
• Baji Safaorva of Azerbaijan claims birth July 3 1890
• Manuel Alvarez of Cuba claims birth Sept 15 1890
• Hryhoriy Nestor of Ukraine claims birth Mar 15 1891
• Sostenes Martinez of Mexico claims birth Apr 22 1891
• Elias Athanasiades of Greece (born Turkey) claims birth May 14 1891
• Clementina Rodriguez Quiros of Panama claims birth Nov 13 1891
• Angel Alberto Rengifo Cerqura of Colombia claims birth Dec 31 1891
• Rebecca Lanier of Ohio claims birth Mar 24 1892
• Carmen Catrileo Hualla of Chile claims birth July 18 1892
• Marie Ribet Davis of Cuba claims birth Dec 10 1892
• Elizabeth Johnson of Mississippi claims birth Dec 25 1892
• Ellen Spencer of Jamaica claims birth Jan 3 1893

Limbo cases (no updates within at least two years)

• Goshada Tsallaeva of Russia claimed birth Nov. 15, 1886; last known to be living Nov. 2002 at allegedly 116
• Marfa Salaikijskaja of Vilnius, Lithuania (said born Sept. 10, 1889) celebrated her 115th birthday in Sept. 2004 (no update since then)

Longevity claims of the past (115+)

Note: this section is a stub and many more cases are planned to be added later.

Person	Country	Claimed birth date	Date of death	Claimed age	Additional notes
Maria do Carmo Geronimo	Brazil	March 5 1871?	July 14 2000	129 years 101 days	Claimed to have been last Brazilian slave [1]
Mary Ewen	Jamaica	May 5 1878?	April 10 2007	128 years 340 days	[2]
Cruz Hernández	El Salvador	May 3, 1878?	March 8, 2007	128 years 309 days
Elizabeth Israel	Dominica	January 27 1875?	October 14 2003	128 years 260 days
Swami Kalyan Dev	India	June 26 1876?	July 12, 2004	128 years 16 days
Benito Martínez Abrogán	Cuba	June 19 1880?	October 11 2006	126 years 114 days
Jackson Pollard	Georgia (USA)	Dec 15 1869?	Oct 25 1995	125	Claimed 128; 125 according to Social Security record
Juan Ramos	Cuba-USA	June 24 1880?	Jan 24 2006	125 years 214 days
Abewara Grace	Ghana	Aug 16 1878?	Jan 18 2004	125
Alberta Davis	USA	Dec 24 1881?	Jan 27 2007	125 years 34 days
Anna Visser	Namibia	Dec 25 1878?	Jan 8 2004	125 years 14 days
Augusta Watts	Florida (USA)	Aug 15 1876?	July 9 2001	124 years 328 days
Maria Etelvina dos Santos	Brazil	July 15 1878?	Mar 8 2003	124 years 236 days
Armando Frid	Argentina	May 24 1866?	July 28 1990	124 years 65 days
Ana Martinha da Silva	Brazil	Aug 27 1880?	July 27 2004	123 years 337 days
Arthur Reed	South Carolina (USA)	June 28 1860?	Apr 15 1984	123 years 292 days	Claimed to be last U.S. slave
Hava Rexha	Albania	Aug 14 1880?	Nov 8 2003	123 years 86 days
Mark Thrash	South Carolina (USA)	Dec 25 1820?	Dec 17 1943	122 years 357 days	Listed as 77 in the U.S. Census in 1900
Oberia Coffin	Texas (USA)	Dec 1 1883?	Oct 18 2006	122 years 321 days
Dora Jacobs	South Africa	May 6 1880?	Jan 19 2003	122 years 258 days
Mamie Evans	North Carolina (USA)	July 2, 1872?	Jan 15 1995	122 years 197 days
David Peterson	Texas (USA)	Nov 22 1850?	May 31 1973	122 years 190 days
Sarah Hoover	Texas (USA)	June 25 1874?	Dec 15 1996	122 years 173 days
Lich Nguyen	Vietnam (died USA)	Dec 4 1876?	Dec 11 1998	122 years 7 days
Mary Duckworth	Mississippi (USA)	June 4 1861?	Apr 19 1983	121 years 319 days
William DuBerry	South Carolina (USA)	Feb 7 1870?	Nov 14 1991	121 years 279 days
Fred Greenwell	Tennessee (USA)	Jan 26 1880?	Jan 22 2001	120 years 362 days
Atidje Starkova	Bulgaria	May 12 1875?	Jan 24 1996	120 years 257 days
Li Cairong	China	Nov 12 1885?	May 10 2005	119 years 178 days
Emma Bodie Begay	Gallup, New Mexico	Nov 3 1887?	April 6 2007	119 years 154 days
Hanna Barysevich	Belarus	May 18 1888?	Feb 23 2007	118 years 281 days
Dominga Pantoja Nique [3]	Peru	May 11 1889?	Feb 14 2007	117 years 279 days
Maria Andersson	Finland	Dec 24 1828?	Aug 24 1946	117 years 243 days
Li Ada	China	Apr 11 1889?	Sept 2006	117
Nellie Chee	New Mexico (USA)	Oct 15 1889?	Nov 14 2006	117 years 30 days	Native American
Amanda Aguilar [4]	Nicaragua	May 3 1890?	Feb 14 2007	116 years 287 days
Minnie Lee Nave	Mississippi (USA)	Aug 15 1890?	Nov 21 2006	116 years 98 days
Paweł Parniak	Poland	Feb 27 1890?	Mar 27 2006	116 years 28 days

False and exaggerated claims

These are claims that have been shown to be exaggerated:

• Rosa Brown of Pleasantville, New Jersey alleged to be born Mar 15, 1890; now said born in 1899

References

• The idea of the demographic transition of longevity claims can be found in books published by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research at http://www.demogr.mpg.de/
• Lists and further discussion of cases may be found at http://www.grg.org/ or http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Worlds_Oldest_People/