Geert Adriaans Boomgaard

Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (21 September 1788 – 3 February 1899) was a Dutch supercentenarian. He is accepted as the first validated supercentenarian case on record. Since there is evidence that he served as a soldier in Napoleon's Grande Armée, Boomgaard might in fact have been the oldest military veteran ever for several decades.

Life
Little is known about Boomgaard's life. He was born in Groningen, Netherlands, to Adriaan Jacobs Boomgaard and Geesje Geerts Bontekoe where he also died. 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 had also served as a soldier in the 33rd Light Infantry Regiment in Napoleon's Grande Armée.

At the age of 29, on 4 March 1818, he married Stijntje Bus. Stijntje died aged 33 on 24 March 1830, a month after the birth of their 7th child. A year later, 17 March 1831, Boomgaard married Grietje Abels Jonker, with whom he had four more children. Grietje died at the age of 71 on 18 May 1864. His last surviving child, Jansje Hinderika, died at the age of 57 in May 1885.

Boomgaard died at age 110 years 135 days in Groningen.

Evidence
Research on Boomgaard was published in three articles by E.J. Heeres in the genealogical periodical Gruoninga in 1976, 1977 and 1978. The website http://www.stehelene.org, which is dedicated to the rebuilding of the lost archives on the Médaille de Sainte-Hélène, shows his photograph, his (presumed) personal Sainte-Hélène medal, 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).