{"id":4121,"date":"2013-07-17T15:50:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2013-07-17T15:59:49","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:59:49","slug":"find-the-oldest-people-to-ever-live-as-reported-in-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/find-the-oldest-people-to-ever-live-as-reported-in-newspapers.html","title":{"rendered":"Find the Oldest People to Ever Live, as Reported in Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary looks through newspaper articles to find stories about the oldest people to have ever lived\u2014and issues a challenge to readers to find even greater claims of longevity in the newspapers.<\/em><\/p>\n

With the Baby Boomers aging and advances in medicine, longevity is a hot topic in the news these days. There\u2019s a lot of talk about how long people lived in the past\u2014and speculation about how long people will live in the near future.<\/p>\n

Newspapers are a great resource to research how long our ancestors lived\u2014and a good way to keep up with current health, medicine and aging issues going forward. According to knowledgeable sources, the oldest verified person to have ever lived attained the astonishing age of 122 years, 164 days!<\/p>\n

Her name was Jeanne Calment (1875-1997), a resident of France. According to this 1997 Georgia newspaper article, she was interred in Trinquetaille Cemetery in Arles, France.<\/p>\n

\"Honoring<\/a>
Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Georgia), 7 August 1997, page 53<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several groups track longevity, including Wikipedia on this Oldest People<\/a> webpage. Guinness World Records<\/a> tracks the oldest person by specific activities. Some oldest-person GWR listings include the oldest person to have a total hip replacement, the oldest person to obtain a pilot\u2019s license, and the oldest person to sail around the world.<\/p>\n

Those Guinness senior citizen records are all interesting, but it is more intriguing to focus on overall longevity.<\/p>\n

Jeanne Calment, who received her certificate from Guinness Records in 1988 at the age of 113, passed away on 4 August 1997. This 1988 South Dakota newspaper article shows her in her ripe old age holding a large certificate noting her birth on 21 February 1875.<\/p>\n

\"Guinness<\/a>
Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), 15 June 1988, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After her in the rankings of greatest longevity are three other centenarian women: Sarah Knauss (119 years), Lucy Hannah (117 years) and Marie-Louise Meilleur (117 years), although some verification of their ages is disputed.<\/p>\n

Another entry in the greatest-longevity rankings whose age is disputed is Carrie White, who was supposedly 116 when she died in 1991. She was said to have been born in 1874, a time \u201cwhen Ulysses S. Grant was president and Gen. George Armstrong Custer was still two years away from his last stand\u201d according to this 1991 newspaper article from Illinois.<\/p>\n

\"Oldest<\/a>
Register Star (Rockford, Illinois), 15 February 1991, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1998, when Sarah Knauss was informed of her honor as the oldest person alive, she reacted with a simple \u201cSo what?\u201d according to this 1998 Illinois newspaper story found in the online archives.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>
Register Star (Rockford, Illinois), 19 April 1998, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Genealogical Challenge: Find the Oldest People to Ever Live<\/strong><\/p>\n

But who\u2019s really counting when you are a centenarian of distinction?<\/p>\n

We are, that\u2019s who! So readers, we challenge you to verify the life of a centenarian older than any of the women mentioned above\u2014or, alternatively, find the oldest claimed age at death. You\u2019ll find an outrageous assortment of longevity claims reported in GenealogyBank\u2019s historical newspaper archives<\/a>, though certainly none as old as the Bible figure Methuselah\u2014who reportedly attained an age of 969 years!<\/p>\n

By browsing this collage of obituaries, you can review a succession of extraordinary longevity claims.<\/p>\n

\"collage<\/a>
Collage of obituaries claiming extreme old age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s as if each newspaper wanted the bragging rights for the oldest centenarian. Did Andy Roark and Cato Pidgeon really attain the age of 130 years? Was it possible for Nancy Lawton to reach 140, and who was R. Sarman, reported to have lived to 160?<\/p>\n