A Gamble Pays Off

In spite of our confidence in the team at Astrea, none of us involved knew whether we’d get genotype files suitable for genetic genealogy even if the human DNA extracted was enough to sequence. Some organizations involved in the project believed that after so many generations of recombination the shared DNA between the subjects and their matches would be reduced to the point that IGG identification wouldn’t even be possible.

After the first round of DNA extractions, two usable genetic profiles were generated. When the first upload was fully indexed, what was revealed was shocking to us. I immediately called Dr. Cristina Valencia at Astrea.

“I think there’s a problem,” I said. “The first 5 matches are over 100 cM and the top match shares 178 cM with a man that died 250 years ago!”

After she assured me that “the data was just the data” and nothing strange had been done to it in bioinformatics, we set out to trace the top matches and just see what was revealed. We thought maybe these high matches were false matches. What we soon found were perfectly clear networks centered around several common ancestor couples in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

We knew that the genetic distance was unique and would present itself in myriad ways once we began in earnest. So we determined that the best way forward was to apply our typical modern case methodology, adding additional types of DNA matching, and adapting tactics as we went along. Eventually we relied on atDNA, YDNA, and XDNA to make the final identification.

What was revealed pretty early in our research explained the high matches that we observed that first day: The families in Anne Arundel County, Maryland were world champions at repetitive intermarriage! Some of our matches had 6 different lines of descent from 6 different common ancestor couples. Stumbling upon matches who traced to just one or two of the couples was always exciting, but they were definitely unicorns.

Some of the more unique adaptations that eventually became necessary were things like translating the Shared cM Project⁴ Meiosis Groupings to fit our research scenario, and emailing hundreds of matches to request their family trees. This second tactic was a last minute decision early on so we didn’t spend valuable research time tracing email addresses in hopes of identifying the match correctly. We knew tracing each of them back to the late 1600s was going to be time consuming enough.

Community-engaged ancient DNA projects are not new for us. We’ve found community engagement both enjoyable and critical in challenging aDNA cases, even though it adds tedious consent and confidentiality documentation to the workflow.

With so many of the profiles in FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch belonging to adoptees and other subjects who are unsure of their genetic backgrounds, not starting out with user submitted information could have added weeks to our research. It ended up being very advantageous for us to find elective database user matches who loved family history, were proud to be related to an American hero, and had done a lot of good foundational research into their trees.

This decision truly became a life saver in the last quarter of 2025 in ways we couldn’t have ever predicted.

We Have A Name

Early in our research we noted a private on our list of Battle of Camden casualties who shared one of the most obvious surnames from the autosomal networks. It almost seemed too easy, yet finding a record for him that placed him in a particular family was not to be.

The biggest thing against his likelihood as our target was age. We knew that our subject, known as Camden 9B at the time, was just a teenager when he fell in battle according to the condition of the growth plates in his knees. This private with the familiar surname had enlisted in 1777 and served 3 1/2 years with the 7th Maryland Regiment before he went missing at Camden. It didn’t immediately add up.

Knowing the families that the DNA was revealing Camden 9B was related to, a lineage expert from Anne Arundel County who had become a trusted advisor and contributor to our archival research expressed skepticism. He just didn’t see evidence in his own research for a book on the Revolutionary War that boys from these particular families would have been allowed to enlist unless there was extreme hardship in the family or he was the son of a single mother. The fact that he enlisted in Baltimore rather than his home county seat of Annapolis also didn’t seem to fit. One hundred percent of his ancestry was from Anne Arundel County, rather than Baltimore County. Though adjacent, we noted a distinction in the two counties’ patterns - they stayed pretty segregated. People from Annapolis weren’t running into people from Baltimore at the market 250 years ago.

To set our minds at ease, we found a living test subject who shared his surname and began a YDNA testing program. The day that he and Camden 9B together created a completely new subclade on the worldwide YDNA haplotree was exciting. After testing two more men, we knew that our soldier was genetically a paternal Pumphrey. But where did he belong in the knotted up family tree?

Descendants of these sons of John R. Pumphrey, the identified soldier's grand nephew, provided critical DNA samples.

It was about this time that we began working with one of our history loving, engaged genetic matches to unearth more documentation. We’d built up a long list of archival reference numbers found online for old records that would have to be pulled manually, and he lived close enough to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis to make a trip. The paperwork he sent us revealed that we were truly on the right track with our reputed subject.

A family scandal was uncovered after the death of both of the parents in one of our two top contenders for the soldier’s immediate family. What we inferred from chancery records was backed up by newspaper notices in 1797, in which his brother was still trying to regain all of their lost property and possessions from a wayward cousin.

Suddenly it was all clear. A middle son with no hope of inheritance, their property seized by a greedy cousin, and the land in dispute was barely over the county line. This childhood home was a simple ferry ride across the Patapsco River to Baltimore. These newly discovered facts made his enlistment there plain common sense and his motivation for starting a new life understandable.

Now would be a good time to explain that our Anna Catharina Bischoff-inspired plan to use mtDNA to confirm our final identity was a bust. After a year of deep archival research, we were unable to find his mother or paternal grandmother’s maiden names. It was his X-DNA matches who came to the rescue and allowed us to identify his mother, and ultimately his parents among a few possible couples. And his mother only had one recorded daughter with no female children found.

Those X matches weren’t the only ones that rescued our project.

In the fall of 2025, the sponsor ran out of funding. We had just gotten our first YDNA match and needed to pay for more Y testing and other expenses to keep the work going. We knew we were close. Very close.

Our sister organization, Genealogy For Justice was founded primarily to manage crowdfunding for John and Jane Doe identifications. It might have been a little unconventional to add fallen soldiers to their slate, yet when I asked the board how they felt about taking on a fundraiser for a young man I considered one of America’s first John Does, the answer was an unequivocal, “Absolutely.”

So the decision to achieve project participation from the genetic matches themselves ended up being an auspicious one when we were able to enlist the support of 1000 interested parties. Generously seeded by a long term Genealogy For Justice patron, the resulting fundraiser got us across the finish line to confirming his identity.

Here is Your Cousin and Uncle, Home from the War

Once we wrapped our forensic report on his identification, we held a meeting with the project archaeologists. I think it took them a few days to let it sink in that we truly knew his name. It was up to our team and theirs to brainstorm about how to effect such an unusual next of kin notification before publicizing his name. Along with never publishing photos of his or any of our subjects’ remains, this was our greatest ethical consideration. A smaller, yet very real challenge was preventing it from flooding Facebook before proper stakeholder notifications could be made.

Already having isolated about 50 matches for our forensic report as his “closest relatives” we had our group. They were either 1st cousins removed 4, 5, or 6 times. Or they were 4th, 5th, or 6th great grand nieces and nephews. All were descendants of his siblings or first cousins.

We notified them of their next of kin status without giving them his name. And we polled them about being able to attend an unveiling of his identity and their comfort level with the press. What resulted was the most unique and touching next of kin notification I’ve ever heard of.

On June 18 of this year, we said his name for the first time to anyone not covered by a team NDA or working for the archaeology and anthropology teams:

Private John Pumphrey

7th Maryland Regiment Anne Arundel County, Maryland

About 100 people gathered that day, along with more than a dozen media outlets, on the lawn of a historic house that had distant ties to his family. The site was literally in the shadow of John Pumphrey’s childhood home. It became the ultimate family reunion for all involved.

Relatives of Private John Pumphrey

The identification of Private John Pumphrey is a wonderful proof of concept for the use of IGG to identify 18th century subjects. A second investigation is well underway, and what evolved as an organic development over 18 months is now our blueprint for subsequent identifications.