{"id":3630,"date":"2026-07-17T19:40:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3630"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:40:35","slug":"how-a-californian-dna-lab-solved-the-oldest-john-doe-in-american-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3630","title":{"rendered":"How a Californian DNA lab solved the oldest John Doe in American history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Through DNA testing and old-fashioned sleuthing, the Maryland teenager who died in one of the last big battles of the\u00a0American Revolution\u00a0can now take his place in history, just in time for the\u00a0250th birthday of the nation\u00a0he fought to create.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere was a sense of divine timing, I guess,\u201d said Allison Peacock, founder of FHD Forensics, a company that helped with the search. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else you want to call it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pumphrey died Aug. 16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. It was one of the Continental Army\u2019s\u00a0most devastating defeats, where British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis routed patriot forces under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates.<\/p>\n

Many of the 900 killed were left where they fell, abandoned to the predations of wild animals, South Carolina\u2019s scorching heat and its ruinous humidity.<\/p>\n

Bones emerge from a Revolutionary War battlefield<\/h4>\n

Archaeologists surveying the area in 2020 came across human bones protruding from the ground. Eventually, 14 sets of remains were identified \u2014 12 of them Continental soldiers. The others were determined to be connected to the British side and were reburied at the battlefield.<\/p>\n

The Richland County Coroner\u2019s Office had worked with Texas-based FHD Forensics on modern-day cases and asked for their help. Peacock took to calling it the case of \u201cAmerica\u2019s oldest John Doe.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat we did is pretty much the same as what we do with any other John Doe case,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody really knew for sure whether we could get genetic profiles suitable for a genealogy investigation on 240-plus year old remains. But we got lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike most, Pumphrey and four comrades received a cursory burial beneath a thin layer of dirt. He was dubbed simply \u201cCamden 9B,\u201d because his were the second set of remains retrieved from burial nine. The remains were examined and cataloged.<\/p>\n

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The 12 Continentals were later reinterred\u00a0with full military honors. Camden 9B\u2019s headstone read simply: \u201cUNKNOWN. REV WAR. BATTLE OF CAMDEN. AUG 16 1780.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DNA unlocks a centuries-old mystery<\/h4>\n

Meanwhile, samples from two of the soldiers were sent to Astrea Forensics in California for DNA extraction and sequencing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTypically, in a case like this, we work with teeth, because teeth are in the jaw and are protected, the roots are protected,\u201d said Peacock. \u201cIn this case, they were just coming up with nothing on the teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

With remains this old, it\u2019s often difficult to separate the human DNA from all the other genetic material in the grave, said Astrea co-founder and scientific adviser Kelly Harkins Kincaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets colonized by the microbial environment in the soil and the water in the environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although she\u2019s worked with DNA samples as old as 10,000 years, this was the oldest sample her company has ever used to try to reconstruct a family tree.<\/p>\n

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From a petrous portion of the temporal bone, a delicate structure behind the ear at the base of the skull, they were able to extract three types of DNA: autosomal, X chromosome and Y chromosome. Peacock\u2019s team uploaded the results to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe got 20,000 matches to work with,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, it was a lot to kind of comb through.\u201d<\/p>\n

An orphan soldier\u2019s life comes into focus<\/h4>\n

One of those matches, from the maternal line, was Russ Hudson.<\/p>\n

The retired federal agent in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, offered to help do archival research. A profile began to emerge: of a young orphan from Maryland\u2019s Anne Arundel County, dispossessed and looking for his way in life.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI learned that probably when he was 13, he went to Baltimore and he enlisted in the militia,\u201d said Hudson. \u201cAnd who knows what his story was? What did he accomplish in order to become a member of the militia at such a young age?\u201d<\/p>\n

Because no birth record has been found, it\u2019s unclear how old Pumphrey was when he went to war. He signed his re-enlistment papers with an \u201cX.\u201d But he was young enough that, when he died, the growth plates around his knees had not yet fully closed, Peacock said.<\/p>\n

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A witness to history<\/h4>\n

Researchers now know that Pumphrey and his comrades from the 7th Maryland Regiment were with George Washington in the snows at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Peacock said his unit was involved in some of the major contests in the Northern Theater, including the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.<\/p>\n

She figures he had marched 1,000 miles before he met his end in the pine lands of South Carolina.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what John Pumphrey\u2019s cause of death was because they did not find a particular injury on his body,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that he had a soft tissue injury, like a bayonet injury, but it\u2019s a little hard to tell after 246 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unexpected twist and an emotional reunion<\/h4>\n

Work continues on the other set of remains, Camden 11A. One thing is certain: Peacock is related to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first things I do when I take on a case is I run my DNA against the remains to see if it\u2019s somebody I\u2019m related to, just on the wild chance that it might be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s never happened before, but I am related to Camden 11A. So, I\u2019m very motivated to get him identified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Peacock was confident enough in the research to put a name to Camden 9B. Relatives wept during an emotional ceremony at the 19th century Benson-Hammond House in Anne Arundel County.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe fact that some archaeologists just happened to stumble on bones that were protruding from the earth, and knowing that it would be difficult to identify those people by DNA, I just found it really exciting,\u201d Becky Berman of Daytona Beach, Florida, Pumphrey\u2019s first cousin, 10 times removed, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

For Hudson, the retired federal agent, the story won\u2019t be over until the U.S. government confirms the research and replaces his fifth great-uncle\u2019s \u201cUNKNOWN\u201d gravestone. He said America owes it to John Pumphrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sacrificed himself, along with some others,\u201d Hudson said, his eyes tearing up, \u201cfor the sake of this new nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After 246 years, Pvt. John Pumphrey, Revolutionary War veteran, is unknown no more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Californian DNA lab solved the oldest John Doe in American history - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Californian DNA lab solved the oldest John Doe in American history - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After 246 years, Pvt. 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