- This topic has 2 voices and 0 replies.
-
Posts
-
The body of a boy found in the Washington or Virginia area was recently identified as being that of one William Taylor White, d. 1852. His body was found in a coffin made of iron and was apparently discovered accidentally by a work crew, but it took a few years just to make the right ID on the boy.Mystery Boy in Iron Coffin IdentifiedI'd call this a real case of historical CSI. From the article:
White was one of several potential candidates the team focused on after studying census records, obituaries and other public documents.They then tested the DNA of known living descendants to make the positive identification.The pathologists and forensic anthropologists reported that White had congenital heart disease, a ventricular septum defect, which is a hole in the heart, that contributed to his death.
It's amazing what they can find out about a person 150+ years after the fact. I imagine that 150 years into the future it will be even easier to solve such clues about the past (our present) because of increased record keeping and data in the modern age. It looks like the people who ID'd White's body had a few things to go on, such as the coffin style, an obituary, and other bits of information which helped them narrow the possibilities down to a single person. Imagine what it will be like when historians investigate forum postings, blog entries, cell phone records, and other computerized data!
