Susannah Mushatt Jones

Susannah Mushatt Jones - 116 years, 311 days, United States
Susie Mushatt appears on the 1900 census in Alabama at 11 months old and she can also be traced in the 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 US census returns. Although this gives a good confirmation of her approximate date of birth there is no record to confirm the exact day as 6th July 1899. When Susannah applied for Social Security benefits at age 65 no birth record for her could be found, so she had to secure notarized statements from three individuals who knew when she was born [72]. There are some anomalies in the census returns. In the 1910 census her year of birth is 1900, in 1920 census her name is Louisa and in the 1930 census where she lives in Mount Vernon, New York with her husband John H. Jones (whom she married 18 June 1929) she is 28 years old and married at 27. In 1940 she is recorded as a 40 year old maid, living with the Cokells family in Beverly Hills Judicial Township, Los Angeles, California.

She divorced her husband and had no children but she had many relatives including her brother Callie (1909-2004) and friends who knew her well. There are a lot of photographs that can be found in a book which was written by her niece Lavilla Mushatt Watson in tribute to her achievements throughout her life [72]. Susie had younger sisters, so potential options for early identity switches need to be addressed.

The book is a useful document for the purposes of validation. It illustrates a general point that the official record does not always tell the whole story. Record keeping was not very rigorous in rural Alabama in early 1900s. Susannah had a sister Georgia born in 1900 who died age 9. She fell between the two census records and was never recorded in any official document [72]. As far as we know the family testimony in the book is the only record of Georgia’s existence, apart from birth counts on the 1900 and 1910 census records which show that there were two children born and dead between 1900 and 1910. Susie’s maternal grandmother Cindi Bell was born in 1825 according to the 1900 census and died in 1940 at an alleged age of 115. However, her death certificate states that she was born in 1875 which is the year of birth of her daughter Mary according to the 1900 census.

Susie’s older brother Hardy had to change his name and date of birth. He moved to another state while Susie was at Calhoun school where she graduated in 1922. The reason for her being 23 years old while graduating from school needs to be explained in the validation. Susie was described as a gifted and bright student. After graduation she left her home and visited her family only in 1940.

A validation report was published in 2020 by Young and Kroczek, one of a series of updates for United States 115+ years longevity claims [39]. Their conclusion is not dissimilar to ours, but we note that they name only 10 siblings in their “complete” list of her family when we know that there were 12, including a sister Georgia mentioned in the biography. Their conclusion that switches are ruled out might therefore not be watertight.