Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, the First Supercentenarian in History?

Abstract

AbstractThis contribution presents the validation of the age at death of Geert Adriaans BOOMGAARD (GAB), a seaman who reached the age of 110. He was born in Groningen on 21 September 1788 and died in the same city on 3 February 1899. A remarkable number of documents have been found that cover the full span of GAB’s life, and thus make it possible to validate his reported exceptional age. In the first step of the validation, a comparison of the baptism and death records shows that the information provided is consistent, even if the spelling of the surnames of his parents reported in the two records is not identical. The reconstitution of GAB’s family and the dates of birth of his siblings also support the validity of GAB’s reported age at death. The demographic information covers the period between 1818 (the year of his first marriage) and 1837 (the year of birth of his last child). We found few documents that mention him during his early life before his first marriage, including a document from 1791 indicating that his father named his new boat De Jonge Geert as well as a list of conscripts from 1811 where his name appeared. By contrast, we found numerous documents covering the period from 1837 to 1899 that are related to his career as a seaman; the marriages of children; his entry into a nursing home; and various interviews, photos, and articles on his life that appeared in the press. All of these documents support the validity of GAB’s reported year of birth and age at death. Thus, GAB might be considered the first thoroughly validated supercentenarian in the history of humankind.