Maria Olivia da Silva

Maria Olivia da Silva (born February 28, 1880?) is a Brazilian woman who is the world's oldest living person, as of 2008, according to RankBrazil. If her age claim of 128 years old were true, this would make her the oldest person ever recorded and the oldest living person in the world. So far, no one has applied to "Guinness World Records". Moreover, so far RankBrasil has only been able to produce documents dating from the 1970s or later. The birth certificate indicating she was born in 1880 shown on the RankBrasil website was issued quite recently.

She was born in Itapetininga, São Paulo and lives in Astorga, Paraná.

The sudden emergence in March 2005 of a claim to be ten years older than any documented living person is highly questionable, according to critics. She has also been preceded, in the previous five years, by at least two other Brazilian women who failed to provide documentation to support similar claims of record age. At the time, the "Guinness World Records" website considered then 114-year-old Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, born June 29, 1890, as the world's oldest person and later retrospectively accepted the claims of María Capovilla who was then aged 115.

She is of Polish descent.

Da Silva was married twice and has outlived all but three of her 14 children - four of them were adopted. Her memory has not faded and she loves to talk. Da Silva lives with her 60-year-old adopted son, Aparecido H. Silva.

Da Silva's birth certificate and Brazilian ID show that she was born February 28, 1880, however these documents were issued in 1970s.

She is still in good shape, loves to talk and still has a sharp memory. And moreover, not only that she can walk, but she walks every day to the city so she could prove she is still alive, and to get her pension. Many people in Astorga have protested for such a behavior from the city's administration, saying she's too old to be obligated doing that every day.

Another interesting fact might be that Moloko Temo lost her vision years ago, which makes Maria Olivia the oldest living claim who could actually "see" the 19th century world as well as the 2000s.

Moloko Temo and da Silva are also last surviving people who might have been born before 1886. All other claims are younger, beginning with Jamaican woman Ida Stewart. Da Silva, Stewart and possibly Józef Piotrowski are also last living claims from 1880s.

ee also

*Longevity claims
*Longevity myths

External links

* [http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/birthday_125_050304.html "Happy 125th to Maria Olivia da Silva"] Associated Press, March 4, 2005
* [http://www.rankbrasil.com.br/2004/mariaolivia/default.asp "(Superação) Mulher mais velha do Brasil"] RankBrazil pt icon
*Pictures of Maria Olivia da Silva: [http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Economia_Negocios/foto/0,,11752605-EX,00.jpg]
* [http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050304/050304_brazil_vmed11a.widec.jpg]
* [http://www.grg.org/images/MdaSilva1.jpg]
* [http://padornelo.home.sapo.pt/Jose%20Gomes%20lavrador%20Maria%20da%20Conceicao%20Dantas%20Marcelina%20Rosa%20Dantas%20Manuel%20Augusto%20Dantas%20Rosa%20Silva%20e%20Antonio%20Dantas%201919.jpg]
* [http://comcuriosidade.no.sapo.pt/curiosidades/mulervelhabrasil.jpg]