People increasing their age as they approach 100!?

[melba_schmelba]

Has anyone else had a provable case where a person once they got to 70 steadily increased their age, perhaps hoping to reach 100 sooner ?

[andrewalston]

My mum remembers one of her great grandmothers claiming to be 95.

The death certificate from a couple of years later shows, correctly, that she died aged 86. Unfortunately cause of death was Senility, so we are not sure if the claim was intentional.

[coombs]

I had an old great aunty who died in late 2007. She was born in 1913 and just before she died she said she was 100. She was in hospital at the time. Her details were at the bottom of the bed and I looked just to be doubly sure she was born in 1913 and it did say born 13 Oct 1913. She was 94.

[locksmith]

Jane Johns was born on 18th February 1845 in Appledore Devon. Her age was recorded correctly in the next five censuses up to 1891. In 1901 a year had been added and by 1911, three years added being shown as 69.
In 1936 she was reported in the newspapers as 94 (3 years added) in telling the story of how she had worked for the same family for 76 years.

According to a newspaper report on the day of her death (she died the day before her birthday in 1940) she had actually taken off 2 years from her age for the earlier newspaper article saying she was actually 96 not 94. The care home where she lived were thus preparing to celebrate her100th birthday when she passed away on the eve of the event at 99 years of age (5 years added).

This obviously caused some consternation and suddenly somebody recalled that at some time in the past Miss Jones had associated her starting at work at 16 with the birth of one of the Doctors that she would eventually work with and that she had already passed her 100th birthday in 1939. Thus Jane Johns Death was recorded in Central Devon, age 100 fully 6 years older than the 94 that she was. The vicar at Appledore couldn’t find her baptism (he should have looked in 1845) and was happy to report that this would be the first centenarian to be buried in his church yard. Everyone wanted her to be 100 . No one could understand why she had not received her telegram from the King in 1939, I suspect because she had reported her age correctly when she had to register for her pension.

Simon

[iluleah]

This made me smile and certainly my maternal grandmother who registered the death of her mother and gave the stone mason the information for her mothers grave stone documented her mother 15yrs old then she was however I was never sure if it was what she thought or was told  as none of my great grandmothers records matched up and I couldn't find a birth or baptism when I began researching...once more experienced I 'sussed' it out, it seems she lied her whole life marrying a man much older than her so 'adjusted' her age on the marriage cert and all and any census so took it that it 'looked better' in her eyes.
Both sets of grandparents were older parents, well into their late 30s, one set who was married for 18yrs before my dad and only child was born and the others married in their mid 30s and had my mother in their late 30s... then my mother, I and my daughter changed that and had our children aged 18/19yrs old...

What makes me smile is my mother knocks off years of her own age and has done for the past 20 yrs.soon she will be younger than me 

[ThrelfallYorky]

I had a relative who consistently claimed to be younger then she was, despite others knowing her real age ... until she reached 80, and from that point she consistently claimed to be older than she was! There was a fair jump in her age that year!

[StanleysChesterton]

Every time I read about any centenarian in days gone past I always check their death entry, then try to find their birth .... just to check.

I had one in my distant tree that did that and was lying!  There's even a photographic postcard of him that was taken/sold at the time due to his waxing lyrical about his age. 

Right, just looked it up.  It was a chap called Isaac Morgan.
Baptised 1820 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2ZH-SB14
Two older siblings baptised in 1813 and 1815.

1841 Census, aged 20-24.

1871 Census, aged 51. Written by his older brother, with whom he was lodging.
1881 Census, aged 58.
1891 Census, aged 71.
1901 Census, aged 81.
1911 Census, aged 103.

1911 Newspapers: Declaring himself 103 at Chapel le Frith Workhouse in March 1911
1912 Died at an alleged 104 in Derbyshire, reported in Derbyshire Times on 3 February 1912.

FreeBMD has him down as 104.

I figure he can't have been baptised once older than an infant because the family were settled and two older brothers had already been dragged into the church in 1813 and 1815, so the family had plenty of time to have dragged him in there sooner than the 1820 they did it.

I therefore suggest.... he died aged 92.

He clearly saw more and more centenarians getting a few free beers and visitors after 1901, so decided to oomph up his age some

[Gadget]

I had a relative who consistently claimed to be younger then she was, despite others knowing her real age

I had one like that until the 1891 census when she was getting on a bit and her younger sister must have completed the household schedule - she was suddenly 18 or so years older than the 1881

[groom]

My grandmother was the opposite and always claimed to be a couple of years younger than she actually was. It was only when she died and my uncle found her her birth certificate we discovered she was almost 99 and not 97 as she claimed. I wonder what would have happened if she'd lived another year, would she have suddenly admitted she was 100? I think the reason was that she was born a couple of months after her parent's marriage, so perhaps it had been covered up from an early age.

Slightly off topic but have you noticed how once people get past 80 they always feel the need to mention how old they are in conversation, so they say things such as "I'll be 85 next year" ?