DNA evidence has identified four more members of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 Arctic expedition, including Harry Peglar, a sailor whose identity had been disputed since the 19th century. The new identifications bring the number of expedition members identified by DNA and descendant matches to six.
The identifications came from DNA extracted from skeletal remains recovered from sites connected to the expedition. Researchers compared that material with mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA provided by living descendants.
In all four newly identified cases, the genetic comparison produced a genetic distance of zero, meaning the samples matched through a shared maternal or paternal line.
Three of the sailors belonged to HMS Erebus and died at Erebus Bay. They were William Orren, an Able Seaman; David Young, a Boy 1st Class; and John Bridgens, a Subordinate Officers’ Steward.
The fourth was Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop on HMS Terror. His remains were found 130 kilometers from the Erebus Bay remains.
The work was led by anthropologists from the University of Waterloo, with Stephen Fratpietro of Lakehead University extracting DNA from the archaeological samples.
Peglar’s identity had been disputed for more than a century
Peglar’s identification settles a mystery surrounding remains found in 1859.
The body was discovered with Peglar’s personal documents, but the clothing did not correspond to his rank. The documents included his seaman’s certificate, along with poetry and apparent descriptions of events from the expedition. They became known as the “Peglar Papers.”
The DNA match now provides a genetic identification of the sailor associated with those documents.
“It was interesting to conclusively identify this sailor because the body was found with almost the only written documents from the expedition ever found,” said Robert Park, a University of Waterloo anthropology professor and co-researcher.
The sailors died during the expedition’s escape attempt
Franklin’s two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, became trapped in Arctic ice for nearly two years. In April 1848, 105 survivors left the ships and attempted to escape by traveling along the west coast of King William Island in what is now Nunavut.
They walked while dragging boats on sleds. All 105 died during the attempt.
Human remains from members of the expedition have been recovered from King William Island and the Adelaide Peninsula since the mid-19th century. The new identifications establish that Orren, Young and Bridgens were among the crew members who survived the first three years of the expedition before taking part in the escape attempt.
The newly identified remains do not show evidence of cannibalism. Earlier DNA work identified John Gregory, an engineer aboard Erebus, in 2021, and James Fitzjames, the captain of Erebus, in 2024. Fitzjames’s remains showed evidence of cannibalism.
Descendants are helping identify the dead
Living descendants are central to the DNA identifications. Researchers use genealogical records to establish an uninterrupted maternal or paternal line before determining whether a descendant is eligible to provide a comparison sample.
One of the new identifications also connected the research to a modern family. Rich Preston, a BBC News journalist, was identified as a descendant of John Bridgens.
Preston provided a DNA sample after being contacted by Douglas Stenton, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Waterloo. The sample matched one of the sailors recovered from the expedition.
“For the living descendants, these findings provide previously unavailable details regarding the circumstances and locations of their relatives’ deaths, as well as the identities of some of the shipmates who died with them,” Stenton said.
The researchers are encouraging other descendants of Franklin expedition members to come forward to determine whether their DNA can help identify additional remains.
The findings appear in two papers. “DNA identifications of three 1845 Franklin expedition sailors from HMS Erebus” appears in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The second paper by the same authors, “Some very hard ground to heave’: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror, will appear in Polar Record.
