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06/06/2023 3:02 am
I've always been particularly fascinated by early centenarians - the people who lived to extreme ages at a time when many of the comforts and tools we now have and use in everyday life hadn't been invented or weren't available, and the study of extreme longevity had yet to really begin.
I was amazed to find a portrait of Elizabeth Gray (11 May 1748 – 2 Apr 1856) which was posted in a Facebook group. I researched her claim back in 2019 on the 110 Club; to sum up there is early and late-life evidence to support her case, and a fairly complete family tree, but in my view it's unlikely that enough mid-life evidence would exist to verify her claim with the rigor of today's cases. Nevertheless, with a family history of longevity (her mother and two of her siblings would probably also have been within the 50 oldest living people in Scotland at the time of their deaths) I personally think it's fairly likely her claim is true.
Here's the portrait, drawn in November 1851 when she was 103:
I started a project on researching early centenarians a few years ago but never got very far (there's no better time like the present to resurrect dormant projects..!), and to put into perspective the extremity of Elizabeth Gray's age compared to her contemporaries, here are the only three other people whose ages I was able to verify to a similar degree of confidence to reach 105 in Scotland born in the 18th century:
- Agnes Forrester (already verified; 4 Oct 1755 – 20 Feb 1861), 105
- Isabel Morison (10 Nov 1772 – 19 Nov 1877), 105
- Agnes Fleming (17 Feb 1799 – 29 Apr 1905), 106
That's not to say there weren't plenty of people claiming to be older though. 1856 also saw the deaths registered of Robert Bruce at '109', Ann Mackay at '108', and Margaret Morrison at '107'. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people of people registered as dying at centenarian ages in the 20th century are unable to be verified - many of them were people who simply never tracked their age throughout life and simply had to estimate whenever asked. If we follow Margaret Morrison, she went from '80' in 1841, to '100' in 1851, to '107' at the time of her death in 1856.
A few other factors that may impact record-finding for claimed centenarians in this era include:
- They may have been born in a parish where baptism records were not kept or lost
- They may have based their current age on the age they remember being at the time of certain historical events, however memory isn't perfect and they may misremember their age, or the event in question
- Personal details such as maiden name, name of parents or siblings, birthplace etc may have not been recorded and lost to time, so they can't be used as parameters for searching
- They may have an extremely common name which makes it difficult to search for records. This is especially true for Gaelic-speaking regions at the time, where half of the population would share 10 forenames and 10 surnames.
On the other hand, if someone has an uncommon name it can be much easier to find records for them. The earliest verifiable centenarian (to more archaic standards, not those of today; and almost certainly not the actual verifiable earliest centenarian) in Scotland I've found is Hugina Leslie, who was born on 15 Mar 1746 and died on 22 Apr 1846 in Cupar, Fife. She was a member of the well-attested noble family Leslie of Lindores, her brother was John Leslie (1750 – 1813), the 8th Lord Lindores and final holder of the title.
I wonder what the true preponderance of centenarians worldwide was in the 19th century. As late as 1897 there were periods where there seemed to be no verifiable centenarians living in Scotland (which, admittedly, only held about 0.25% of the world's population then).
06/06/2023 7:53 am
The earliest Swedish centenarian that I've been able to verify was Kerstin Johansdotter (5 May 1716 - 17 Aug 1816) of Trehörna. She’s decently documented in the Swedish records. There are however a lot of earlier-born claims but I have not been able to find proof of birth for them.
06/06/2023 9:19 am
I made a list of early centenarians on the Gerontology Wiki a while ago. I'm sure there are some that can be added or removed.
https://gerontology.fandom.com/wiki/User:Richard_Monkey/Earliest_centenarians
14/06/2023 8:20 pm
I take advantage of the launch of this thread to announce that I am currently working on a master thesis about early centenarians. I have chosen a French region (Burgundy) to conduct a complete demographic study of the centenarians who celebrated their 100th birthday between 1825 and 1949. To find all the people who were declared centenarians at their death, I use two sources: the press online and a complete analysis of the death tables which provide the age of all the deceased who died there between 1825 and 1968, except for missing registers or information not communicated (quite rare).
The individual study of each person found will then allow me to know, except for insoluble cases, whether the centenarians are real, in order to constitute a reliable database.
I hope I could release all of this next year.
14/06/2023 8:55 pm
@guillaume that sounds like a very interesting endeavour. Is it within demography?
diego reacted
15/06/2023 1:14 pm
Robbie, I share your interest, too.
In the early 1980s I started ancestor research based on our old family archive with genealogical trees and documents starting about 1650. My ancestors kept baptismal certificates they needed for a marriage. These originals were manually written by clerics.
As I wrote in another topic, we are in very lucky position here in Austria possessing parish records since approximately 1540. Land register you can find hundreds of years ago before.
My first oldest ancestors are for example Christian W., 1645-1750, and Thomas H., 1684-1786. Due to data protection I will not give further details.
15/06/2023 4:24 pm
@930310 It's a master thesis in History. More specifically, what is called in France contemporary history (the period extending from the French Revolution, end of the 18th century, to today). In English historiography, this period also exists but has a different meaning (end of WWII to now) and is considerred as a subset of the modern period.
diego reacted
15/06/2023 4:32 pm
Here's one of the centenarians who is part of this study. Besides having found her in both press and death tables, her life is very well documented and there is no doubt that she was 102.
https://gw.geneanet.org/attila1301?lang=en&n=pezier&oc=&p=marguerite+colombe
diego reacted
15/06/2023 9:45 pm
Here are a few Dutch (super)centenarians who died before 1 January 1900:
- Anna van Os-Kersbergen (24 May 1726 (baptized 26 May) - 9 January 1827), 100 years, 230 days.
- Johan Samuel Frederiks (24 May 1772 - 12 April 1874), 101 years, 323 days
- Dijmpna Jongenelen-Helmonts (baptized 20 February 1775 - 29 May 1876), 101 years, 99 days
- Pieternella Abigael Snelli-Akkerman (baptized 21 December 1784 - 1 December 1889), 104 years, 345 days
- Pieter Roggeveen (baptized 1 October 1786 - 1 December 1887), 101 years, 62 days
- Johannes Lorette (baptized 22 November 1786 - 10 October 1890), 103 years, 323 days
- Anna Cornelia Dubois-de Colonia (baptized 17 November 1787 - 18 December 1890), 103 years, 31 days
- Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (baptized 21 September 1788 - 3 February 1899), 110 years, 135 days
- Jan van Herwaarden (27 November 1788 - 6 March 1891), 102 years, 70 days
- Martinetta Buquet-Tam (20 March 1793 - 6 March 1895), 101 years, 351 days
- Jan Straver (25 May 1796 - 24 November 1897), 101 years, 184 days
- Martinus Wilhelmus van de Waal (15 July 1796 - 21 November 1898), 102 years, 130 days
- Gerrit Buurman (baptized 9 April 1798 - 30 July 1898) 100 years, 113 days
15/06/2023 9:51 pm
Wow. I had no idea there were so many. I knew of Eilif Philippsen, Pierre Dacourt, and Margaret Anne Neve. (I hope I spelled their names right) But that's super interesting to hear about how many people made it to 100, centuries ago. Good work on you!
EDIT: Whoops, Margaret Anne Neve was actually a SC. I had remembered incorrectly that she was 109 years and 321 days, when she was actually 110 years and 321 days. My bad.
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diego reacted
17/06/2023 7:32 pm
As part of my project to identify the centenarian population of North East England through time, I have identified many claims of early centenarians.
This list is not exclusively of early centenarians but includes all unverified cases, of which many early cases:
Please note this is not yet complete
The only pre-1800 born cases I have been able to fully verify as true from the region are:
- The Rev. Ferdinand Ashmall, 9 Jan 1695 - 5 Feb 1798, 103 years, 27 days
- The Hon. Lady Catherine Duncombe Shafto (née Eden), 10 Feb 1771 - 19 Mar 1872, 101 years, 38 days
- Jane Arnott (née Hindmarch), 30 May 1771 - 21 Jan 1873, 101 years, 236 days
- Joseph Saint, 21 Feb 1784 - 26 Apr 1886, 102 years, 64 days
- Thomas Ironsides, 12 Apr 1791 - 19 Aug 1793, 102 years, 129 days
- Dorothy Grey (née Aynsley), 18 Jan 1793 - 26 Nov 1893, 100 years, 312 days
- Margaret 'Peggy' Dobson (née Hague), 5 Apr 1794 - 14 Aug 1895, 101 years, 131 days
- Jane Kell (née Shipley), 10 Dec 1795 - 16 Aug 1897, 101 years, 249 days
- Hannah Cochrane (née Scott), 10 Jun 1799 - 17 Jun 1899, 100 years, 7 days
24/06/2023 8:04 pm
This case is pretty solid:
Parkinson Wouldhave, a woolcomber, was buried in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, England, on 31 December 1826 at the claimed age of 102
There is some slight conflict as John Sykes records in his book "Local Records, Northumberland and Durham" (1833) that Wouldhave died on 4 January 1827, aged 108. However the burial record proves that death date cannot be right, so he likely died around 27/28 December 1826. The age of 108 seemingly comes from nowhere.
There is a record of a baptism at Darlington, Co Durham, on 30 August 1725, son of John Wouldhave. This would make him 101 years if this was a match. But is it him?
There is no marriage record seemingly available, but his wife was Ann Wouldhave, who died on 12 May 1806 at Bishop Auckland, aged 91 (unlikely, but clearly she must have been old), recorded as "wife of Parkinson Wouldhave, woolcomber".
There are baptisms for children of this couple:
William, bapt 9 March 1750/51, Barnard Castle, Co Durham, married Anne Haines at Bishop Auckland, 6 Feb 1774 (marriage witnessed by Parkinson Wouldhave), buried at Bishop Auckland, 30 July 1834 (aged 84)
Parkinson, bapt 29 Apr 1753, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, died at Bishop Auckland, 17 June 1845 (aged 92)
Mary, bapt 21 Mar 1756, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham
Ann, bapt 22 Apr 1759, bur 8 Apr 1763, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham (aged 3)
I initially thought perhaps the Parkinson Wouldhave who died in 1826 could be his son of the same name who was born in 1753, but the 1841 census shows the 1753 Parkinson Wouldhave alive and well aged 88 (recorded as 85), and a death record at age 92 recorded in 1845, eliminating any possibility of a switch.
In 1774 in the register of electors there was a record in Bishop Auckland of "Parkinson Wouldhave", another "Parkinson Wouldhave" and "William Wouldhave", matching the above family exactly.
Only issue is we are missing an exact death date, and a marriage record would be nice as well. Apart from that, it seems very likely that Parkinson Wouldhave was baptised on 30 August 1725, and died around 27 December 1826, aged 101 years.
diego and heatwave116 reacted
04/08/2023 1:53 pm
Just found out that one of the 19th century centenarians, whose age I authenticated a few years ago, was actually the aunt of the godfather of one of my direct ancestors.
Véronique Gallois (1786-1887), sister of father of Pierre Jean Baptiste Nicolas Gallois (1797-1869), himself godfather of Constance Léger (1820-1900) who is my great-great-great-great-grandmother.
The world is small.
diego reacted
