Franklin researchers hope to link DNA from sailors' bones with descendants

Researchers who have completed the first genetic analysis on thebones from the crew of the doomed Franklin expedition in Canada'sArctic say they're hoping to meet living descendants to match themwith the remains of their ancestors.

Anne Keenlyside, an anthropologist at Trent University andco-author of a study on the remains, performed DNA analysis of tooth and bone samples recovered from eight sites where sailors died after they abandonedHMS Erebus and HMS Terror in April 1848.

• Talks with British on ownership of Franklin artifacts still unresolved

• 'It just got much more complicated': Why the discovery of HMS Terror only raises more questions

Keenlyside said the analysis doesn't shed much light on whatbefell the expedition, which became icebound while looking for theNorthwest Passage. But researchers have put a call out togenealogists in Canada and the United Kingdom for anyone who cantrace a family tree to the Franklin sailors.

Matching the DNA with the living would indicate who died where,the study says.

"If we can find those living descendants if they're directlydescended from those crew members and if they're willing to submita DNA sample in the form of a ... cheek swab, then we can analyzetheir DNA, compare it to the DNA extracted from these skeletalremains and see if there is a match," Keenlyside told The CanadianPress.

Doug Stenton, lead author of the study released online in theJournal of Archeological Science: Reports, said knowing who the menwere would shed light on their rank. That information would add to abank of knowledge that could one day unlock the mystery of thefailed mission.

"I think it's going to be a combination of things thatultimately lead to an understanding of what happened," said
Stenton, who is with Nunavut's Culture and Heritage Department.

"It's important we take advantage of as many sources as we can."

• Nunavut shipwreck confirmed as Sir John Franklin's HMS Terror

'Why did so many men die so early on?'

The Franklin expedition left England and headed north, never toreturn, in 1845. Its two ships were found within the last threeyears by underwater archeologists.

How things went so badly wrong has remained a mystery and alegend.

DNA analysis was difficult because many of the remains wereexposed to the harsh northern elements for more than 150 years,Keenleyside said. DNA also degrades over time.

A cairn that was found in 1859 indicated that 105 men left the icebound ships in April 1848 and came ashore on the northwest coastof King William Island. It's believed their plan was to walk alongthe Back River to a Hudson Bay Co. post.

Franklin died almost a year earlier in June 1847.

The DNA study concluded that 21 people, or 20 per cent of thesailors who left the ships, died at five of the sites within a smallarea of Erebus Bay, which is only about 70 kilometres from where thecrew came ashore. Since a few crew members made it 230 kilometresfurther to Montreal Island, the study's authors suggest there must have been significant health differences between the men when they left the ships.

"Why did so many men die so early on? Something must have goneseverely wrong," Stenton said.

Some theories about why the mission failed include lead poisoningand spoiled tinned preserves.

This summer, Parks Canada's underwater archaeology team is toreturn to Nunavut to conduct some preliminary dives on HMS Terrorand continue the archeological work on HMS Erebus.

• Under the ice: Military and RCMP divers work together in Arctic dives

Stenton said more clues are likely to be uncovered as dive teamsexplore the shipwrecks.

The researchers say they've already made preliminary contact withsome descendants of the crews. And they say more clues are outthere.

"Of the 129 crew members, we've only recovered the remains ofmaybe 30 of those individuals," Keenleyside said.

"What happened to the rest of them? It leaves you wondering whether additional human remains will be found of these crewmembers."

• No camera, no proof: Why a Nunavut hunter didn't tell anyone about his HMS Terror find