The ESO has now processed a supercentenarian claim as high-level debunked.
Ann Pouder claimed to have been born on 7 May 1807 in London, UK. She was originally allegedly validated by Alexander Graham Bell, and accepted by the GRG as born on 8 April 1807. Ann died on 10 July 1917 in Baltimore, USA at the claimed aged of 110. However our work has concluded that she was in fact born on 3 May 1808 instead, which would have made her "only" 109 years and 68 days.
Of course, she still would have been one of the oldest people to have ever lived at that point in time - and this should not be forgotten. She can be considered to be validated at the age of 109. Her date of birth was prior to civil registration in England, so it is understandable that she might not have recalled her date of birth with great accuracy, and I believe any error was accidental. She was consistent about her claimed date of birth for many years.
Co-founder, European Supercentenarian Organisation 2020-
Founder, Oldest in Britain 2009-
Great job, ESO Team!
Is it public what document(s) was/were used to determine 1808 as her year of birth?
ESO Correspondent for Hungary (since 2020)
GRG Correspondent for Hungary (2020-2023)
Tracker and researcher of Hungarian and other Central European (super)centenarians (since 2016)
Enthusiast of extreme longevity (since childhood)
Awesome to see the ESO being expanded! 😀Β
@024tomi Andrew and I researched this case originally about five years ago when I did a revalidation of a lot of supercentenarians. I found her census matches and family tree information as well as a christening index that matched the other information that stated that she was born in 1808. Andrew then found the actual record, which confirmed that she was indeed born in 1808.
Is it just me, or can anyone else not access the link?
It appears to be for members only. I have forgotten my login info, so I can't check the page...
The link should be accessible to everyone now π
Co-founder, European Supercentenarian Organisation 2020-
Founder, Oldest in Britain 2009-
I would be interested to know where the 8 April birthdate come from. None of the documents support that date, nor did she ever claim to be born on that day in the contemporary press articles.
ESO Co-Founder and Administrator (since 1 January 2020)
I would be interested to know where the 8 April birthdate come from. None of the documents support that date, nor did she ever claim to be born on that day in the contemporary press articles.
It seems to have originated with Alexander Graham Bell. Perhaps he found a different birth or baptismal record for a different Ann Alexander and mistakenly concluded that it was for the woman who died in 1917.
@sailor-haumea I highly doubt that a baptismal record was ever found by Alexander Graham Bell.
@sailor-haumea I highly doubt that a baptismal record was ever found by Alexander Graham Bell.
Yeah, he probably just found the 1850 census.
But that leads back to the question of where April came from. It's not from Guinness because references to it predate that and as far as I know Guinness never accepted Pouder back in the era when they did research in-house.
Would Eva Jourdan qualify? She didn't actually claim to be a supercentenarian but was incorrectly validated as such for several years.
Recent debunking, accepted on 12 November 2024:
Elsa Ferrari, ITA, 2 Dec 1913 - 1 Dec 2019, 105 years and 364 days. As she died in Bergamo (instead of Milan, where she was registered as a living resident), the municipality of Milan was unaware of her having deceased.
Overduidelijk misschien.