| Maria Olívia da Silva | |
|---|---|
| Claimed oldest person ever | |
| Born | 28 February 1880? Itapetininga, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Died | 8 July 2010 (aged 130 years, 130 days) Astorga, Paraná |
| Occupation | Retired |
Maria Olívia da Silva (attested 28 February 1880[1] – 8 July 2010) of Brazil is a claimant to the title of world's oldest person ever. She died on Georgian woman Antisa Khvichava's claimed 130th birthday.
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Silva was born in Itapetininga, São Paulo, and lived in Astorga, Paraná.[2] She was of Polish descent. She was married twice,[2] the first time allegedly in 1893, and outlived all but three of her 14 children.[2] Four of them were adopted. Da Silva lived with her 65-year-old adopted son, Aparecido H. Silva.[2]
She was still in good shape at the time of her death, loved to talk, and still had a sharp memory.[2] Da Silva ate rice, beans, and bananas every day.[3]
In March 2005 she was first claimed to be three years older than the then oldest undisputed person ever. At the time, the Guinness World Records website considered then 114-year-old Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, born 29 June 1890, as the world's oldest person, and later retrospectively accepted the claims of María Capovilla, who was then aged 116.
RankBrasil has only produced documents dating from the 1970s or later, including the birth certificate on its website indicating she was born in 1880, and a Brazilian ID with the same birthdate.
The oldest living person verifiably documented by Guinness at the time of Silva's death was the French woman Eugénie Blanchard who was born in 1896, three years after Silva was allegedly already married and who died in November 2010.
