![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I wrote in January about concerns about the true age of so called "supercentenarians", "the oldest people ever" etc, and the methods they use to trick gullible people and idiots who want to live forever: https://yannis.livejournal.com/416851.html
So, here is another method:
The practice of bestowing necronyms has sometimes caused confusion for historians. This is primarily because of the two birth certificates or records that could be present at a given time. This confusion often stems from the inability to differentiate the records of each child. One such example is the case of Shigechiyo Izumi (1865?–1986), accepted in 1986 as the world's oldest man by The Guinness Book of World Records, but who was in fact possibly born in 1880, after one previous brother whose name he assumed upon his death.
So, what happens:
The parents have a child, they give it a name and then this child dies at a very young age. After that they have another child and give this child the same name they gave the previously deceased one. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that this other child is born right after the deceased one, years or even decades may pass since the death of the original child.
Anyway, they both have the exactly same name. Then, at some point of it's life, this second child gets the birth certificate of the deceased one and steals the first child's identity. Sure, it is not a big deal to obtain the birth certificate of the deceased child, they are relatives and have the same parents. The reasons for this identity theft may vary, but I think anyone can think of some useful way to perform such a trick. Like, some kind of fraud, earlier retirement etc.
And as bureaucracy is always stupid, backward and corrupt, such kind of theft should not be very complicated, especially in some rotten Southern European countries like Italy.
And so we get a new "supercentenarian" or even another "oldest man on the Earth", with a real birth certificate from a hundred and something years ago, who might well be years of even decades younger than he or she claims to be.
And keep in mind that our digital age started just two decades ago, meaning that sources like photos, other documents except for birth certificate etc are reasonably scarce, so it is quite logical you won't have many documents to work with to confirm such claims.
So, people are basically stupid, naive and gullible, and this "necronym" thing gives another chance to trick them for those who want to do so.
So, here is another method:
The practice of bestowing necronyms has sometimes caused confusion for historians. This is primarily because of the two birth certificates or records that could be present at a given time. This confusion often stems from the inability to differentiate the records of each child. One such example is the case of Shigechiyo Izumi (1865?–1986), accepted in 1986 as the world's oldest man by The Guinness Book of World Records, but who was in fact possibly born in 1880, after one previous brother whose name he assumed upon his death.
So, what happens:
The parents have a child, they give it a name and then this child dies at a very young age. After that they have another child and give this child the same name they gave the previously deceased one. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that this other child is born right after the deceased one, years or even decades may pass since the death of the original child.
Anyway, they both have the exactly same name. Then, at some point of it's life, this second child gets the birth certificate of the deceased one and steals the first child's identity. Sure, it is not a big deal to obtain the birth certificate of the deceased child, they are relatives and have the same parents. The reasons for this identity theft may vary, but I think anyone can think of some useful way to perform such a trick. Like, some kind of fraud, earlier retirement etc.
And as bureaucracy is always stupid, backward and corrupt, such kind of theft should not be very complicated, especially in some rotten Southern European countries like Italy.
And so we get a new "supercentenarian" or even another "oldest man on the Earth", with a real birth certificate from a hundred and something years ago, who might well be years of even decades younger than he or she claims to be.
And keep in mind that our digital age started just two decades ago, meaning that sources like photos, other documents except for birth certificate etc are reasonably scarce, so it is quite logical you won't have many documents to work with to confirm such claims.
So, people are basically stupid, naive and gullible, and this "necronym" thing gives another chance to trick them for those who want to do so.
