Sardinian siblings aged 818 officially the world's oldest

Nine brothers and sisters in Sardinia who have a combined age of 818 years have been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest siblings, cementing the Mediterranean island's reputation for longevity.

The Melis family

Consolata Melis, who will turn 105 on Wednesday, with a World Guinness certificate, poses with her three brothers in her house in Perdasdefogu village

Experts attribute the ripe old age of the Melis family to a combination of good genetics, a healthy diet and an active lifestyle.

They come from the village of Perdasdefogu in a mountainous region of Sardinia called the Barbagia, which was known to the ancient Romans as ‘Barbaria’, or land of the barbarians.

The ruggedness of the region has repelled invaders for centuries, helping to maintain a distinct gene pool.

The oldest of the siblings, Consolata, will celebrate her 105th birthday today/on Wednesday, while the “baby” of the family, Mafalda, is a comparatively spry 78 years old.

The siblings say part of the secret of their longevity is being surrounded by their 150 children, grand children and great-grand children.

Consolata alone has nine children, 24 grand children, 25 great-grand children and three great-great grandchildren, with a fourth on the way. Born on Aug 22, 1907, she has lived through nine papacies. 

Remaining active also appears to be key to the siblings’ longevity – another sister, Claudina, 99, goes to church every day, while a brother, Adolfo, 89, still works in a bar in the village and spends his spare time growing vegetables in his garden.

“In my day women had to do all the domestic work, going to the standpipe to get water and to the river to wash the clothes. My grandchildren have washing machines and vacuum cleaners so when they say “I’m so stressed”, I just can’t understand it,” Consolata told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Two of the brothers fought the Germans during the war – 93-year-old Antonio helped repel a German advance at Viterbo, north of Rome, while Adolfo once hid in a well to escape a Nazi assault.

The large size of the family was recognised in 1940 by the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, who awarded their mother, Eleonora, a Medal of Honour and a certificate.

“The Mediterranean lifestyle is always held up as being beneficial to a long, healthy life, and Italians in particular feature prominently in the list of super-centenarians and centenarians,” said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief for Guinness World Records.

Of the 70 people in the world who are over the age of 110, seven are Italian and the

world's second-oldest person is an Italian-born woman who now lives in the US, he said.

“Genes and lifestyle are paramount, but luck plays a big part – avoiding accidents and falls, and so on – so to have such a large number of living siblings with an average age of more than 90 years is incredibly rare.”

Amarilis Whitty, also from Guinness World Records, said the claim was put forward by a friend of the family. “It was only recently verified. They were able to provide all the information we had, from birth certificates to other family records,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

The secret of Sardinians’ long life is being studied by a scientific project called AKeA – an acronym for “A kent’ annos”, a traditional toast in the Sardinian language which means “may you live to 100 years.”

Diet is considered crucial – Sardinians eat less carbohydrate-heavy pasta than their counterparts on the mainland of Italy and their diet is particularly rich in proteins derived from milk and cheese.

Islanders traditionally eat sugary foods sparingly, with desserts and pastries reserved for saints’ days and festivals.

But scientists believe genetics also play a key role. Resistant to foreign invaders since Roman times, the Barbagia region has a comparatively small gene pool in which beneficial traits such as longevity are passed on from generation to generation.

“On the one hand it is about genetics, about inherited longevity – as shown by the fact that the surnames of centenarians crop up again and again,” said Luca Deiana, a professor of clinical biochemistry from the University of Sassari in Sardinia.

“But there is also the bounty of the land and the fruit it produces, particularly pears and prunes,” said Prof Deiana, who has studied 2,500 centenarians on the island since 1996.

The fact that Sardinians continue to hold their elderly people in high regard and include them in family life was also a factor, he said.