DNA from unknown Revolutionary War soldier reveals more than his name

840 points by Dramatic-Shake-8888 a day ago on reddit | 14 comments

PutStreet | a day ago

Forensic genealogy is such a fascinating field.

Amazing they could find family for this young man

DreadfulDemimonde | a day ago

It's interesting that they said the two other sets of remains were "connected" to the British side, not that they were soldiers. They must not have had any identifying items with them like buttons, which seems strange. And if they are confident that they're British why not repatriate them?

dkais | 23 hours ago

American-born loyalists made up to 25% of the total British military forces during the Revolution. Another third of British forces were hired Germans (mostly Hessian soldiers). So since the majority of their soldiers were not actually from Britain, it wouldn’t be appropriate to assume these remains belonged to people from Britain.

DreadfulDemimonde | 23 hours ago

Thank you!

henchman171 | 21 hours ago

It’s interesting when these German loyalists came to a Canada as refugees they then Anglicized thier last names

redralphie | 18 hours ago

The headless horseman (from the legend of sleepy hollow) was thought to be originally based on a hessian soldier.

xb10h4z4rd | 8 hours ago

I’d agree with you when the Brit’s give back the treasures they’ve plundered.

anime2345 | 23 hours ago

Once the Brit’s start repatriating all their spoils of war, maybe nations could consider showing such grace

Until then, finders keepers seems to be acceptable

mastermalaprop | 21 hours ago

What does this have to do with repatriating remains?

timpratt83 | 22 hours ago

Very cool to see this story getting national attention. The Pumphrey family was very prominent here in Anne Arundel County back in the day and they’re still around today.

beaujuste | 17 hours ago

My Walliser ancestors did the same. Germans to New York to Canada, where they ended up as Wallaces. I thought they’d turn out to be Scottish from their name but no.