Yesterday, I published an article entitled "World's Oldest Person?" at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/worlds-oldest-person.html about a claim by authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia stating that a woman from a remote mountain village is turning 130 years old. If true, the woman would be the oldest person on Earth, despite some undocumented claims of even older people elsewhere. The article claimed that authorities displayed two Soviet-era documents noting her date of birth as indicated in her birth certificate, which had been lost.
Today, the wire services are reporting that Antisa Khvichava's claims are also undocumented.
Nobody is saying that the lady's claims are false, only that the claim cannot be substantiated. She may or may not be 130 years old. Her birth certificate, like many others, has been lost in the area's succession of revolutions and wars.
Stephen Coles, a University of California lecturer and member of the Gerontology Research Group that assists the Guinness Book of World Records, reports that Khvichava's claim can be proven only with documents dating to the time of birth. So far, nobody has been able to produce such a document.
