The oldest verified person ever to have lived is Jeanne Louise Calment, who was 122 years old when she passed away in Arles, southern France, in 1997. Sceptics began to question her longevity and speculated that Jeanne had actually died decades earlier, and that her daughter Yvonne had assumed her mother\u2019s identity for tax reasons.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2021, and \u2018super recogniser\u2019 Kelly Jo Desborough scotched these rumours by analysing precise facial differences in known images of Jeanne and Yvonne. Pictures taken of Jeanne in youth and later life highlighted her long, slender nose with a slight droop at the tip. Yvonne, in comparison, had a wide, upturned nose with a distinct kink in the bridge. Jeanne Calment was no fraud.<\/p>\n

Read the full version of this article and much more in\u00a0Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine\u00a0<\/em>September 2022<\/a>, on sale now<\/p>\n

Kelly Jo is the chief operating officer of the company Super Recognisers International<\/a>, which is based in Orpington in Kent. Its staff work with police forces across Britain, and are now applying their skills to help family historians identify relations in old photographs and paintings.<\/p>\n

SRI\u2019s founder Mike Neville explains what super recognition is: \u201cAround one per cent of the population have this innate ability to recognise a person\u2019s face, even if they\u2019ve only seen it briefly several years ago. The name was established by Prof Richard Russell at Harvard University who was studying people who have prosopagnosia, or \u2018face blindness\u2019, and can\u2019t even recognise themselves in the mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deduced that there were outliers at either end of the scale of facial recognition. Therefore there must be some people who are super recognisers.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do super recognisers help the police?<\/h3>\n
Mike used to be a detective chief inspector in the London Metropolitan Police, and in 2007 established an image database of unidentified criminals caught on CCTV. \u201cI asked officers from across the force to try to identify the offenders,\u201d he says. \u201cIt became apparent that a small number of them were making the majority of successful identifications, even if they had only seen that person years earlier on CCTV.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2012, Mike established the first ever Super Recognisers Unit at New Scotland Yard. \u201cTwo of the officers I recruited identified the Salisbury Novichok poisoning suspects in 2018. The team watched thousands of hours of video showing passengers arriving in the UK from Russia. They then watched CCTV from Salisbury to see if any individuals matched on both sets of film.\u201d<\/p>\n
How do super recognisers help family historians?<\/h3>\n
Mike retired in 2017 and set up SRI. In addition to supporting the police, the team is increasingly working with family historians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an iconic image of a First World War<\/a> soldier carrying a comrade through the trenches. He didn\u2019t have a hat or badge to identify him, and about 20 families came forward to claim him as their relative. Then The Times asked super recogniser PC Dale Nufer to study the images. By comparing the shape of the brow, nose, face and ear lobes he was able to identify the most likely candidate. This was Private George Edwin Raine of the Durham Light Infantry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team apply their skills forensically. \u201cSuper recognisers work by getting an initial impression of a person\u2019s face. They then \u2018dissect\u2019 those features that remain unchanged through the ageing process.\u201d This allows them to connect images of the same person 50 years apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe study eyelid shape, cheek creases, nose contours and the ears. If you draw parallel lines from the top of your ears across to your nose, the point at which those lines meet doesn\u2019t change. Some people\u2019s ear tips are parallel with their eyebrows, while other people\u2019s are below the eyelid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often receive queries from families regarding school or British Army photographs, asking \u2018Is this my grandfather or uncle?\u2019 It can be hard for them to draw a conclusion from an old photograph or a group image,\nand that is where we can help.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather served in the British Army and was at Dunkirk. I would love to see a picture of him in uniform, and would pay someone to identify him if one emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike clearly enjoys working with family historians. \u201cIt\u2019s so satisfying when people know they have found a picture of a loved one. It gives them a great sense of comfort, assurance and a connection with the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ancient Egyptians believed that you lived for ever if someone remembered you. If your great uncle was killed on the Somme and you find an image that is definitely him, perhaps the last ever taken, then he lives again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Gail Dixon is a regular contributor to\u00a0<\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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How do super recognisers help family historians?<\/h3>\nMike retired in 2017 and set up SRI. In addition to supporting the police, the team is increasingly working with family historians.<\/p>\n