Oldest Singleton Twins [*] in History Worldwide

1. Mary Belle Murphy Crombie [July 6, 1890 - September 22, 2003] age 113 years, 78 days;
Born at Calhoun, IL; USA. Her twin Sister Mabel Jean died in December 1984 at age 94.

2. Nellie Wakefield Cross [October 28, 1889 - April 3, 2002] age 112 years, 157 days;
Born in Plano/Centerville, IA; USA. Her [fraternal] twin Brother William Lorence died on December 18, 1972 at age 83.

3. Ruth Peterson Anderson [July 24, 1899 - December 20, 2011] age 112 years, 149 days;
She was born on a farm in Murray Country across from Lyon County where Balaton is located. She resided at the Avera Marshall Morningside Heights Care center in Marshall, MN.
Her [fraternal] twin Brother Abel died in August 1900 at the age of 1.

4. Alice Smith Lindsay [March 31, 1893 - July 1, 2004] age 111 years, 92 days;
Born at Tarraville, Gippsland, AUSTRALIA. Her twin Sister Eugenia Smith Collins died on October 8, 1998 at age 105.

5. Mary Ann Ackerman Schumacher [August 29, 1898 - October 29, 2009] 111 years, 61 days; she was born in North Dakota. Her [fraternal] twin Brother Joseph died at age four.

6. Leona Adams Gleed [March 28, 1900 - February 7, 2010] age 109 years, 316 days;
Born near Page in Holt County, Nebraska; USA. Her [fraternal] twin Brother Leo died on March 16, 1990 at age 89. Leona Adams Gleed resided at the Heritage of Bel Air in Norfolk, NE. Click for more details from Omaha World-Herald. Click on the photo for other details...


7. Elsbeth Charlotte Rackert Bauch [October 12, 1900 - Living] age 111* in Katzchenbroda (today part of Radebeul, Saxony, GERMANY).
Her [fraternal] twin Brother Ernst Herbert Rückert died at age 92 [October 12, 1900 Kötzenbroda - March 12, 1993 Dresden; both Saxony, GERMANY].
She was married on May 2, 1925 in Chemnitz (Saxony) to Friedrich August Hermann Bauch.
She now lives in Hof (Bavaria), Germany.

8. Edward Driver [September 24, 1890 - June 28, 2000] age 109 years, 278 days;
Born at Two Rock, CA; USA. His twin Brother William died in the 1960's at age 70+.

9. Dale Moyer [June 20, 1895 - July 17, 2004] age 109 years, 27 days;
Born in Ohio; USA. His [identical] twin Brother Glen died on April 21, 2001 at age 105.

10. Gin Kanie [August 1, 1892 - February 28, 2001] age 108 years, 211 days;
Born in Nagoya; JAPAN. Her [identical] twin Sister Kin Narita died on January 23, 2000 at age 107 years, 175 days.
Note: These are the only twins to have lived to be at least 107 years old each.

11. Muriel Johnson [January 27, 1898 - August 20, 2006] age 108 years, 205 days;
Born in CANADA.


12. Kathleen Grimwood [August 19, 1901 - Living], age 108*, was not expected to make it beyond her first year; but, she is now believed to be Suffolk's oldest resident. Ms. Grimwood's Mother was told by her doctor in 1901 that she "was weak and stood little chance of surviving through to adulthood." "He told me not to waste too much time on her." her Mother said. But Ms. Grimwood has defied the odds and welcomes well-wishers to her home on the Croft in Sudbury, UK, where she has lived for the past 50 years. Her twin Sister Gertrude died on the June 22, 1992 at the age of 90. Click on her photo for more details.

In the US, the twinning rates reveal that in 1964 there were 10.4 twins per 1,000 live births.
As of 2004, there were 32.2 twins per 1,000 live births. Even though twins (and higher multiples)
are much more common today than they once were (due to IVF/ART),
they are still comparatively rare, since only about one of every 32 children born in the US
has a twin.

For more information about twins and the topic of twin longevity, click on twinstuff.com.

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* A singleton twin is the surviving twin, once one of the pair has passed away.
It would be most unusual to find a pair, both of whom were still living [**].
To our knowledge, there has never been a pair both of whom achieved Supercentenarian status in their lifetimes.
From a genetic point of view, it would be of even greater interest to know which of the pairs
were identical and which were fraternal.
(Obviously, if they were of opposite gender, they must be fraternal [as Nos. 2 and 6 above],
since identical twins must always be of the same sex. By definition, they have the same
DNA and thus the same "XX" or "XY" chromosomes.)
Curiously, at no time did a male fraternal twin outlive his sister on this list. It would be of interest to know
in the general twin population what the gender-longevity profile is as a function of age.
Can one of our volunteers do a little bit of statistical research to answer this question?
It would also be of interest to know if the twins were raised together or apart as children,
but it is unclear whether this information is generally available except by dedicated
researchers enrolling twins in a study for other reasons. Finally, it would be of greatest
interest to know what the epigenetic profile (methylation pattern on the DNA) of identical
twins is as they age. It is a hypothesis that the epigenetic profile of identical twins
diverges linearly with age, but the data to support this assumption is sparse.

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** November 17, 2009; As of this date the longest living twins were
Allan Ceascear JACKSON and
Allen Charles JACKSON
born in St. Thomas, The Bahamas, on November 24, 1903.
And although we haven't validated either of them yet, on November 18, 2009.
we have been informed that Allan Ceascear passed away on November 2, 2009,
However, we have also learned that there is an elder brother named Joseph who is
presently age 108. If these brothers were both to continue to live to age 110 and their ages
could be validated, we could have our first pair of sibling (fraternal) Supercentenarians.
This speculation is still too early, given the known likelihood of these combined
events.