For decades, a human skull sat on display in a New Hampshire attorney’s office – its origin a total mystery.
Now, thanks to advances in forensic science and investigative genetic genealogy, researchers say they have finally uncovered the story behind the remains, tracing them back to a family with links to Quebec more than 200 years ago.
A skull with no past
In 2019, a student at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) presented anthropology professor Amy Michael with an unusual artifact: a human skull.
“The student had brought it in her backpack to school. We started out this case of not knowing at all what the actual origin of the skull was or how old it was, and we set out to try and identify it,” said director of the IGG certificate program Cairenn Binder in a Zoom interview with CTVNews.ca Friday.
The student’s father, who worked at a law office in Claremont, N.H., recalled seeing the skull on display since the 1980s, a Friday release from Ramapo College in New Jersey reads. Where the skull came from – and whose it was – remained an unsolved mystery.
Over the years, students at UNH’s Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery (FAIR) lab attempted to trace the skull’s origins through traditional forensic and archival research. However, without DNA evidence, Michael says they could only get so far.
In 2024, with permission from the New Hampshire Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), the UNH FAIR lab sought help from the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG) in New Jersey.
The goal, the college release reads, was to use modern genetic testing to finally put a name to the remains.
Last summer, a portion of the skull was sent to Astrea Forensics in Santa Cruz, Calif., to develop a DNA profile.
“They were able to successfully extract DNA from the skull, and then that was put through a process called whole genome genealogy,” Binder said.
By November, the college says a successful profile had been created and uploaded to a special database portal – GEDmatch PRO – designed to support police and forensic teams with investigative comparisons to existing genetic records.
“Their biggest challenge was also the age of the skull because when we’re doing genealogy, we usually know about what era the person comes from. They had no idea how old the man was when he died, what year he would have been born in or what year he would have died in,” Binder said.
Binder added that students had to use the genetic relatives of the person to figure out approximately who it was.
A breakthrough discovery
Ramapo IGG students then analyzed the DNA results and uncovered a significant connection.
Binder said students had to reverse-engineer the family tree of the person the skull belonged to.
Researchers say the skull was genetically linked to a family with deep roots in Quebec. Based on their findings, they believe the skull belonged to a child of Samuel Matchette (1781-1854) and Sarah Shields (1800-48). Both parents died in Quebec, but their family had historic ties to Sullivan County, N.H., where Claremont is located.
Binder said the skull was confirmed as an adult male.
“They really impressed me. They had to be super granular using a chromosome browser (to find out) which pieces of the man’s DNA were inherited from which ancestors and that helped them zero in on this family,” Binder said.
“It’s a long time ago that all of their children passed away. None of their children were known to have lived in Claremont, N.H. … so it does make sense that either they had a child that immigrated to the United States and maybe was working there and passed away or there was some sort of skeleton trade, perhaps a medical specimen that was traded between the Quebec region and Claremont,” Binder explained.
Binder said their findings gave some closure for this skull that’s been sitting on a shelf for upwards of 50 years.
“We’re making leaps and bounds with what we can do with genetic genealogy. It’s been used to solve cold cases and hot cases here in the U.S., Canada and in Europe, as well,” Binder said.
Thanks to collaboration between teams in forensic science, genetic researchers and students, a once-anonymous skull has been given a story and a place in history.
