Margaret Ann Harvey Neve – 110 Years Old in 1903. The First Documented Female Supercentenarian

Margaret Ann Harvey was born on 18 May 1792 in St Peter Port, which is the capital city of Guernsey, the second-largest of the Channel Islands; and died there on 4 April 1903 at the reported age of 110. In this contribution, her exceptional age is thoroughly validated. Considering the data collected on her parents and siblings, there is no possibility of an erroneous linkage, as the name of Margaret and Ann appears only once in the birth records, her family’s birth intervals were narrow, and the dates of death of her siblings have been checked. As she did not have children, her name was not found in civil registration records after her marriage in 1823 until her death in 1903. This lack of records might have made it difficult to prove that the person who died at age 110 in 1903 was the same person who married in 1823 at age 30. Fortunately, she was enumerated in six successive censuses from 1851 to 1901, and a comparison of the ages reported in these censuses and her exact ages shows only minor deviations. Moreover, numerous letters and her numerous diaries help us to follow her life during that long period. Upon reaching age 100, she became famous in Guernsey. Thus, there are many photos of her and press articles about her life. These data support the reliability of the reported chronology of her life events, and thus allow us to validate this exceptional case. Accordingly, we can state that Margaret Ann Harvey Neve is the first documented female supercentenarian. As in the case of recently deceased supercentenarian Emma Morano, her life spanned three successive centuries – albeit one century earlier.