The 1845 British polar expedition in search of a northwest passage through the Canadian Arctic under the command of Sir John Franklin resulted in the greatest loss of life event in the history of polar exploration. The names of the 129 officers and crew who sailed and died on the catastrophic voyage are known, but the identification of their skeletons found scattered along the route of their attempted escape is problematic. Here, we report DNA analyses from skeletal remains from King William Island, where the majority of the expedition fatalities occurred, and from a paternal descendant of a member of the expedition. A match was found between an archaeological sample and a presumed descendant sample using Y-chromosome haplotyping. We conclude that DNA and genealogical evidence confirm the identity of the remains as those of Warrant Officer John Gregory, Engineer, HMS Erebus. This is the first member of the 1845 Franklin expedition whose identity has been confirmed through DNA and genealogical analyses.

中文翻译：

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1845 年富兰克林西北航道探险中一名水手的 DNA 鉴定

1845 年英国极地探险队在约翰·富兰克林爵士的指挥下寻找穿越加拿大北极的西北通道，导致了极地探险史上最大的生命损失事件。129 名在灾难性航行中航行和死亡的军官和船员的名字是已知的，但在他们企图逃跑的路线上发现散落的骷髅的身份是有问题的。在这里，我们报告了来自威廉国王岛的骨骼遗骸的 DNA 分析，大部分探险死亡发生在该岛，以及探险队成员的父系后裔。使用 Y 染色体单倍型分析发现了考古样本和推测的后代样本之间的匹配。厄瑞巴斯。这是 1845 年富兰克林探险队的第一位成员，其身份已通过 DNA 和家谱分析得到证实。