Geert Adriaans Boomgaard

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Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (September 21 1788 - February 3 1899) is accepted by most demographic scholars as the first validated supercentenarian case on record. However, some may view him as the second internationally recognized supercentenarian in the world after the case of Thomas Peters (1745 - 1857) was grandfathered into the Guinness Book main tables (from the footnotes) in the late 1980's.

Little is known about Geert Adriaans Boomgaard's life. He was born and died in Groningen, the Netherlands. His father was captain on a boat and civil records say that Geert did the same work as his father. Other sources say that he served as a soldier in the army of Napoleon.

He married on March 4 1818 to Stijntje Bus and remarried after her death on March 17 1831 to Grietje Abels Jonker.

Evidence

Research on Geert Adriaans Boomgaard was published in three articles by E. J. Heeres in the genealogical periodical Gruoninga in 1976, 1977, and 1978. The website http://www.sthelene.org, which is dedicated to the rebuilding of the lost archives on the Médaille de Sainte-Hélène, shows his photograph, his (presumed) personal Sainte-Hélènemedal, and a certificate which states that "Adriaans, Gerrit, à Groningue, Pays-Bas, received this medal" on behalf of his active military service during the reign of Napoleon I. The certificate is registered at la Grande Chancellerie No. 1871, and bears the stamped signature of the Duc de Plaisance Général Anne-Charles Lebrun, Grand Chancelier 1853-1859.

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