Maria do Carmo Jeronimo, a former slave whose lack of a birth certificate prevented her recognition as the world's oldest woman, has died at the age of 129. Jeronimo died of a stroke late on Wednesday at the University Hospital in Itajuba, 300 km (200 miles) north-west of Rio. Maria do Carmo Jeronimo lived in three centuries

According to church records, Jeronimo was born on 5 March 1871 in the southeastern town of Carmo de Minas, in Minas Gerais state. Brazil then was a monarchy under Emperor Pedro II, and Jeronimo, who was black, was born into slavery. She was 17 when Brazil finally abolished slavery, but never left Minas Gerais.

For six decades she worked as a housemaid for the Guimaraes family, which in recent years tried unsuccessfully to have her recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest woman.

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