Extreme Longevity Tracking

**Extreme longevity tracking** is the tracing and recording of claims of exceptionally long human lives (longevity), as a branch of demography. Persons have been noted for tracking 'supercentenarians'
 (those aged 110+) for hundreds of years; some included quite famous
persons noted in other fields. What was once a hobby in the Middle Ages became a more scientific endeavor in the 1870s with William Thoms. Alexander Graham Bell
 dabbled in the field, among his many other pursuits. While long a
back-burner field, noted names such as "Young and Bowerman" in the 1930s
 continued. The advent of the Guinness World Records
 brought the tradition worldwide recognition. By the 1960s, some
governments began tracking 'centenarians' as well as the 'oldest person'
 in the country (for example, Japan started in 1963; the UK in 1966). Today, many European nations, from Germany to the Netherlands, track 'supercentenarians'. However, even some Western nations have lagged: major efforts in the USA only started in the last decade, and other states such as France have not yet instituted such recordkeeping. Due to this, there remains room for 'unofficial' experts.

While supercentenarian tracking may seem esoteric to some people[*who?*], recently society has recognized its use,[*dubious – discuss*] in particular since the advent of pension
 payments (beginning in Germany around 1870). Early trackers, however,
focused either on myth-making or myth-busting; the goal was often to
find out why some people lived so long and find the 'secret to long
life.' Later, scientific inquiry found that in most cases, extreme ages,
 especially 115+, were all false. Only in recent decades has a
population of persons 110+ emerged as a consistent reality (the first
validated 110-year-old was in 1898, Geert Adriaans Boomgaard of the Netherlands, but as recently as the 1970s the person recognized as the "world's oldest person" was as young as 109).

## Contents

* 1 History
	+ 1.1 Timeline of age validation
* 2 Researchers
* 3 Other trackers
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## History

Currently, there is no scientific way to determine the chronological
age of a human individual through scientific testing. Therefore, a
system of documented recordkeeping is needed so that the ages of test
subjects recruited for scientific studies can be considered accurate.
When dealing with the extremes of data, often age misreporting can be
the first and foremost issue. For example, the 2000 U.S. Census was
considered generally reliable for younger ages, but by age 110, 90% of
the cases or more were believed to be false (1,388 supercentenarians
were reported, while Social Security reported only 139 persons aged 110
or older on their pension rolls at the time; and, note, the Gerontology
Research Group has never yet accepted as verified even 100 living
supercentenarians at any time, worldwide).[*citation needed*]

Demographers, therefore, have recognized that data of the
extremes can only be considered accurate when systems of recordkeeping
are compulsory (including 100% of the population) for at least 100
consecutive years. For example, Sweden began compulsory recordkeeping in
 1749; the data is considered accurate since 1860 (Wilmoth, 1999). Prior
 to 1860, age claims in Sweden went as high as 147.[*citation needed*]

Whole-population data can therefore be divided into three
periods: preliterate, transitional, and modern. In the preliterate
period, records were kept only for the monarch and nobles, and the
general populace was uneducated and undocumented. Gradually, as the
expansion of tax rolls made the census a necessity (the Domesday of
England, for example), governments saw the need to keep records for next
 the Middle Class and ultimately everyone. This period is called
"transitional" because a significant percentage of the population had
records of birth, marriage, baptism, etc. but a substantial proportion
did not.[*citation needed*]

When a record system reaches near 100% coverage, that system is
said to be "modern." Currently, modern systems include those of nations
such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Japan. Surprisingly, the USA is
still in the transitional period: Universal birth registration was not
compulsory until 1933, so the US will be in the transitional period
until around 2050, by which time the data will become reliable even
without age validation. Until that time, the age claim of the oldest
person in the U.S. cannot be assumed to be valid without proof. In 2008,
 the oldest American claimant was Pearl Gartrell, who claimed birth
April 1, 1888 and died November 23, 2008 (and would therefore be 120
years old, if accurate) while the oldest verified living American was Edna Parker,
 born April 20, 1893, aged 115 years old, when deceased November 26,
Since their deaths, the oldest claimant may be Andrew Hatch (born
October 7, 1898) of Oakland, California; while the official oldest
living American is now Jeralean Talley (born May 23, 1899) a gap of approximately seven and a half months.[*citation needed*]

Comparatively, in the United Kingdom in 2009 the oldest person
was Eunice Bowman (born August 23, 1898) while the oldest claimant was
immigrant Montazi Hussain (born July 1895). Although some nations are
considered to have "modern" systems or recordkeeping, due to immigration
 from other nations, there is still a need for age validation.[*citation needed*]

### Timeline of age validation

* Prehistory and the age of myths
* Development of systems of recordkeeping
* 1846—Quetelet begins using a validation process for the ages of centenarians
* 1870s—William Thoms and a new skepticism
* 1890s—Thomas Emley Young and actuarial science
	+ Thomas Emley Young was the president of the Society of Actuaries,

 London, and the foremost supercentenarian researcher in his day. He
continued the work of William Thoms and introduced the method of
counting "years and days" for living centenarians and supercentenarians

* 1918—Alexander Graham Bell
* 1939—Walter Bowerman
* 1951—Paul Vincent and the method of extreme generations
* 1966—Roger Thatcher and Väinö Kannisto develop the K-T Database
* 1994—Bernard Jeune and the mortality trajectory hypothesis[*citation needed*]

## Researchers

Researchers and groups in the field include the Gerontology Research Group (founded by L. Stephen Coles in 1990), the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (founded by James Vaupel
 in 1996), the Supercentenarian Research Foundation (founded by Stan
Primmer in 2004), Louis Epstein, Robert Douglas Young and Filipe Prista
Lucas. Resources include the International Database on Longevity
(founded by Jean-Marie Robine in 2005).

## Other trackers

* A. Ross Eckler, Jr. (with Guinness World Records 1950s to 1970s)

## See also

* Biodemography of human longevity
* Guinness World Records

## References

* William Thoms (1879). *The Longevity*

of Man. Its Facts and Its Fictions. With a prefatory letter to Prof.
Owen, C.B., F.R.S. on the limits and frequency of exceptional cases*. London: F. Norgate. OCLC 4854500.*

* Langdon Kain (April 1898), "Man's Span of Life", *The North American Review* **166** (497), archived from the original on 2007-12-09
* Young, Thomas Emley (1899). *On*

Centenarians; and the Duration of the Human Race: A Fresh and Authentic
Enquiry; with Historical Notes, Criticisms, and Speculations*. London: Charles and Edwin Layton. OCLC 4874653.*

* Allan L. Benson (May 16, 1909). "Learning the length of life" (PDF). New York Times.
* Bernard Jeune, James W Vaupel (1995). *Exceptional Longevity: From Prehistory to the Present*. Odense: Odense University Press. OCLC 300750028.
* Michel Allard, Jaques Vallin,

Jean-Michel Andrieux, Jean-Marie Robine (1996). "In search of the secret
 of centenarians". In Graziella Caselli, Alan D. López. *Health and mortality among elderly populations*. International studies in demography. Oxford University Press. pp. 75, 76, 85. ISBN 978-0-19-823337-4. OCLC 246972107.

* Bernard Jeune; James W Vaupel (1999). *Validation of Exceptional Longevity*. ISBN 978-87-7838-466-9.

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## External links

* International Database on Longevity
* Validated Living Supercentenarian list maintained by the Gerontology Research Group
* Extreme Longevity (Internet publication)