Wedded for 147 years & dying at 172

When I was a child my grandmother gave me a 'Believe it or Not' book by Robert Ripley dated 1929. Simon and Schuster publishers New, York. The stories alway's intrigued me. Ripley was called a liar many times over, but didn't mind it.
"He felt flattered that some strange fact was unbelievable and therefore most interesting, and that the reader did not know the truth when he saw it". In the beginning of the book it say's..."On request, sent with stamped, addressed envelope, Mr. Ripley will furnish proof of anything depicted or described by him in this book!" Send your inquiry to Mr. Robert L. Ripley Believe it or Not Department Simon and Schuster, Inc. 37 West 57th Street New York City. I wouldn't suggest writing for a request now, since Robert Ripley died in 1949.

On page 85 in this book..... "It tells a story of a couple wedded for 147 years! A Janos Roven and his wife Sara were born in the little village of Stradova, Comitat (County) Casanseber, Banat (Province) of Temesvar , Hungary: and they both died there-Janos being 172 years old and Sara 164. The aged couple attracted considerable attention during the later years of the wedlock, and the Dutch envoy in Vienna visited them and had their pictures painted. This painting is now in possession of William Bosville, the trustee of the Earl of Northumberland, who also has the original documents of their marriage.
Janos and Sara died almost on the same day in 1825. Their son, age 116 years, and his two great-great-grandsons, were at the bedside."

There are many stories in this book with people living well over 100 years old. Even having children over the age of 90! My question is what happened between now and than? Why are we dying so much younger? I'm thinking our environment and what we are putting into our bodies. ie- poisons like Aspartame can cause..... headaches, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma, and cancer. It also appears to worsen or mimic the symptoms of such conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue, and depression. Read at below link why Hawaii Moves to Ban Aspartame. So many things that can make you sick and die, as posted in this Medical Issues & Conspiracies Discussion Forums.

www.mpwhi.com...

Mod note: use of quotes due to no links for this 1929 Ripleys 'Believe it or Not' book.

reply to post by MountainStar



You know, I googled a bit and found it suspicious that their name would only appear in a few documents (in Spanish) retelling the same story... Not a good sign.

But then I changed the name to "Timisoara", which is how the Romanians call the town, and... who would've thought it?

Apparently, there is even a painting of them - which is relevant because it shows how well-know they were (regardless of the veracity of the story about the age itself).

AHS - summary (same as below)


Janos and Sara Rovin: Forgotten Painting from the Collection of Emperor Charles VI and its Author Carolus Unterhuber


The painting Janos and Sara Rovin (signed: Carolus Unterhuber, dated 1695) is a genre portrait of a couple who were, according to the inscription in the painting, married for 147 years and lived in Szadova near Timişoara (present-day Romania). Due to later interventions in the inscription, the date is unreliable. In 1720 the painting was documented in Viennese imperial collection and it was then the first work that could be seen by the visitors of the gallery. The Rovins were in the 1720s often used as an example of longevity, and several versions of the portrait existed, including prints. Two other genre paintings, Old Woman with a Hen and Old Man with Birds can be attributed to the same painter.
With these paintings, Carolus Unterhuber can be placed in the group of Central-European genre painters whose works reveal relations with Lombard genre painting and combine elements of genre painting and portraiture. The painter can tentatively be identified with Karl Jakob Unterhuber (1700–1752), who is generally better known for religious motifs and frescoes.






[edit on 26-1-2008 by Vanitas]

Very interesting, since i thought that people's life span at that time was relatively short.

Have you searched online to see if any of these facts are around? I'd love to read more on this

Thanks for that, Vanitas.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by dgtempe] Its too darn bad they didnt leave their "secret" behind.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by dgtempe]

reply to post by dgtempe


You know, I was just thinking... Perhaps this very painting is what actually sparked - or fueled - the story itself. I mean, it MAY (or maybe not) have been just a legend; but once you see a picture... hey, that was like "as seen on TV", in the old days.

Not that I find extreme longevity that incredible, mind you.


P.S. Yes, I did try to find more information, but no luck so far. And since it's almost 7 a.m., I think I should go to bed...

Perhaps there are some Romanian members - or just members in Romania - who could contribute more to this story?








[edit on 26-1-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by MountainStar


I remember from when I was a child there was a lot of talk about a man - from the Caucasus, I think - who was supposed to have died at the age of 175 years or so. (And personally I think it's quite possible - perhaps not quite as old as 175 years, but... why not? Allegedly, there are people in Tibet - monks - who are supposed to be a lot older.)

Anyway, here's an article that you (or somebody) might find interesting:

Methuselah or Myth?

And, by the way, there are a few threads discussing extreme longevity right here, at ATS. I think you'll find them by searching for "immortals" or something.




[edit on 27-1-2008 by Vanitas]

Thank-you Vanitas and dgtempe. I'll take a photo of Ripley's drawing from the book tomorrow and post it. They do look really old.

reply to post by MountainStar




It would be good if somebody who has a reproduction of the painting discussed in the article or can take a picture of it (I think it's in the KHM collection in Vienna) posted it here, so we could compare it with the drawing. It would become immediately clear whether the drawing was made after the painting (most probably), which would then identify it as the probable source of the story itself.

I don't think it's gonna happen - but it's a thought...

I am a Romanian myself , but this is the first time when I find out about the story. I tried to google in Romanian but no luck..
However, when I was a child I remember some similar stories about people living more than 160 in a certain region of Urals in Russia . I will try to find more about the Timisoara case . Yes, the city used to belong to Hungary for a while but it was returned to Romania after the end of the Austrian-Hungarian military alliance in the beginning of the century..

reply to post by sty

Thank you.
(You will have noticed, of course, that the place where they lived is the today's Sadova.)

I tried to google up something myself (even though I don't speak Romanian), but didn't find anything - not even on the Timisoara website (org & com). I was very excited when I saw the guy who runs the website had a page called "Genealogy" - but it turned out it's empty...

Anyway, it'd be good if you'd found out about these people. And besides, it'd be interesting piece of "trivia" for Timisoara itself, right?

And BTW, I think the man that you were talking about was the same as "mine": the man who drank "kefir" and worked in the woods, right? ; )

Here's the photo's with *a little* help from my friends.
It would be great to have a photo of the painting to see if it
resembles Ripley's sketches in any way.







Sorry about the grungy prints I had this book when I was a kid.
Would make mud pies and read Ripley's on grandma's lawn swing.

Im not sure which is more amazing... them living to be that old, or them being married all those years!!

considering it seems that we have a genetic killer that makes sure that we dont get very old it could be a mutation of that.

well, there were a lot of people in those days who didn't know how old they were exactly and had no way of knowing.

My bet is their age was wrong, probably intentionally.

Still not able to track the old couple in the local online media. I guess I will need to get in contact with some local people - I will be back as soon as I get something. The couple I heard of - from Urals (the east limit of geographical Europe) got a very similar age - I wonder if this is a myth in the end. Very similar story - appeared in a national science newspaper back in 91-93 , with the claim that it was usual for the people to live over 140 in that area... got to dig about it a bit