Lucy Hannah

Lucy Hannah - 117 years, 248 days, United States

Lucy Hannah first appeared in lists of supercentenarians after 2003 when the Kestenbaum Study of US social security records uncovered her apparent longevity [68]. They appear to have based their conclusions mostly on her Social Security Death Index record, an SSA record from 1972 that also confirmed that she was black, and a census record from 1880.

There was a marriage certificate from 1943 which gave her parent’s names as Solomon Terrell and Sallie Edwards. If this is correct then she was a widow from an earlier marriage with surname Brown. A family with parents Sol and Sallie Terrill, her brother with surname Edward and 4 children was found in Tallassee, Alabama in the 1880 census, but Lucy is not present. Instead she has been identified as a Lucy Terrell age 4 living with grandparents Thomas and Sarah Terrell in Linden, Alabama 130 miles away. Although she was given the age of 118 on her death records, the study set an age of 117 based on the records they found. This was accepted by other validation bodies including the GRG, GWR and IDL, and she remained on official lists as the fourth oldest of all time [26], until 2020 [47].

Because of the delay in identifying her case, very little biographical information about her life has been uncovered. There appears to have been no press coverage from the time of her death. We have been unable to find any news reports. There are no confirmed photographs of her at any age and no family that outlived her have been identified.

In 2007 her case was questioned when her Wikipedia page was marked for possible deletion. It was noted that there was very little supporting evidence for many of the biographical details that had been written into the article. In 2010 Robert Young mentioned her in his review of US validations over 115, but declined to examine closer due to a lack of detailed information found [36].

It was not until 2015 that an investigation by enthusiasts from the 110 club (notably Jimmy Lindberg) found evidence that raised serious doubts about her age. It was pointed out that the date of birth according to her marriage application would be 1895, much later than the claim. It is possible for an older woman to give a younger age on a marriage certificate to match her husband’s age, so this alone was not conclusive. A 1930 census record for a widowed Lucy Brown living with two Terrell nieces appears to confirm the later birthdate. A marriage record for Solomon Terrell and Sallie Edwards in 1871 suggests that the family in the 1880 census without Lucy could be the right one, but Lucy could have been born later when her mother was about 40 years old. There is no proof of this but the evidence is sufficient to cast serious doubt on her validation.

Some sources claimed she married a John Hannah in 1901 and had 8 children two of whom outlived her [69]. This originated from a Wikipedia vandalism incident on 3rd April 2011 when false biographical details were added to her biography. The edit was reverted only 3 months later. By then false details had been copied into other web articles and also a book [70]. A photo sometimes said to be of her has also been debunked.

After these discoveries, her case was widely recognised as dubious and was marked as “disputable” [27]. Nevertheless her age remained in the IDL database and GRG lists for another five years until Robert Young finally published an invalidation report in 2020 [39].

This example demonstrates firstly that government studies should not be blindly trusted for validation. More generally, no validation should be accepted without a published list of sources for evidence used, and preferably copies of documents where possible. We are surprised that she was not removed from validation lists much sooner than she was. Validation groups seem to work on the principle that once validated, a case cannot easily be invalidated until there is proof that the original conclusion was wrong [4]. We do not accept this protocol. A validation should only stand if the available evidence would confirm it using current validation standards. This is one reason why it is important for all validation evidence to be published. The case of Lucy Hannah attracted widespread attention because of her extreme age but other cases from the USA in the IDL list were auto-validated with similar methods. This raises questions on the validity of these data.