EC man’s DNA helps solve 175-year-old mystery
All those who had attempted to reach the Canadian mainland perished, and while some marked graves were found, John Gregory’s identity remained a mystery for 176 years.
For the first time, genetic analysis has positively identified the remains of a member of the doomed Franklin Expedition
In what is being hailed as a significant scientific breakthrough, a Gqeberha man’s DNA has been used to unlock the mysteries of one of the most tragic naval expeditions in history.
For the first time, genetic analysis has positively identified the remains of a member of the doomed Franklin Expedition, aimed at navigating the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Humewood resident Jonathan Gregory, 38, known as “Joe”, is over the moon that his DNA has been matched to John Gregory, now confirmed to be his great-great-great grandfather.
While his family had always been aware of a possible connection to the incident, an email he recently received confirmed his relationship to the unfortunate HMS Erebus engineer whose bones were excavated on King William Island in the Victoria Strait, now known as Nunavut, in 2013.
The intention of the Franklin Expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, was to find an easier trade route with Asia.
However the journey, which began in 1845, ended in tragedy as both ironclad ships, the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, vanished, and it was only in the last decade that the wreckage sites were found.
What made this event so infamous was that after the ships became trapped for 18 months in the ice about 80km from King William Island, 129 expedition survivors made a desperate bid to reach the Canadian mainland by battling blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.
In a letter dated July 5 1845, John Gregory told his wife Hannah that they were in Greenland and had not entered the Canadian Arctic, but they had seen icebergs and whales. That was the last Hannah ever heard from him.
There has also been much speculation over the decades that while trapped in the ice, crew members turned to cannibalism to survive and others went mad. So compelling is the story that it has been dramatised in the BBC production The Terror and served as inspiration for fictional works by Mark Twain and Jules Verne.
All those who had attempted to reach the Canadian mainland perished, and while some marked graves were found, John Gregory’s identity remained a mystery for 176 years.
But now, thanks to the efforts of a group of researchers from University of Waterloo, Lakehead University, Trent University and relative Joe Gregory, the truth has been revealed. John Gregory’s skull allowed the researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Polar Record, to recreate his appearance.
In 2019, Gregory received a Facebook message from a cousin living in Canada, Courtney McDonald, informing him that the researchers who had found skeletal remains were reaching out to people around the world asking if they were prepared to submit DNA samples “predominantly from XY chromosome male”.
After agreeing, Gregory, who lives with wife Annie in Humewood, was sent a pipette from North America to provide a swab sample.
“I swabbed the inside of my mouth, went off to the Waterfront SPAR, and sent it via airmail. It was due to be there in about three or four days. I wanted to confirm with them whether they had got it, but it was stopped at customs.
“So then they sent another sample, but then Covid happened. But, in the interim, customs had actually released the parcel and it had made its ways to its destination. But then basically a fortnight ago I got this mail.
“It was very formal, and it said ‘We have a match’. I could not believe it.”
Because of the enormous interest in the West, Gregory has been inundated with requests for media interviews, and in the past week has featured in the UK’s Daily Mail and the New York Times.
“This is just something out of this world. As generations go on, people lose the ability to stay in touch with history and their family. I just hope this encourages people to get out there and understand a little about where we come from,” he said.
“There would be nothing better for myself and my brother to be able to stand on King William Island and be able to feel like what it must have felt like. This is not an obituary, this is history. There’s a link now, and we can relate to it on so many levels.”
He said this had “not only made for a good story for [Gqberha], but it is such a great opportunity for my brother Stuart and his kids Adam and Owen, who are the end of the family tree. Imagine them doing orals in class. It’s absolutely great.
“The whole Gregory family is extremely grateful to the research team for their dedication and hard work, which is so critical in unlocking pieces of history that have been frozen in time for so long.”
Quoted on the University of Waterloo’s website, Douglas Stenton, a co-author of a new paper about the discovery, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Gregory family for sharing their family history with us and for providing DNA samples in support of our research. We’d like to encourage other descendants of members of the Franklin expedition to contact our team to see if their DNA can be used to identify the other 26 individuals.”