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## The Living Descendants: A Record Now Attached to Names
The identification program works because living people are willing to participate. The DNA comparison requires a living individual who shares a paternal-line connection with the expedition member being identified, and that person must be found, contacted, and willing to provide a comparison sample.
The varied backgrounds of the living descendants identified so far reflect the width of the genealogical net that has been cast. Nigel Gambier, who provided the comparison sample for Fitzjames, was identified through archival genealogical research including handwritten family documents. Jonathan Gregory, who provided the comparison sample for John Gregory in 2021, was identified as a great-great-great-grandson. Rich Preston of the BBC, who provided the sample for Bridgens, apparently learned of his connection to the expedition through the same kind of genealogical research that the broader identification effort has drawn on.
Each identification requires a unique genealogical path. The Y-chromosome profile from a specimen must be compared against a living man who is in the paternal-line descendants of the same person. Finding that person requires knowing enough about the expedition member’s paternal ancestry to trace it forward through 170-plus years to a living individual. For well-documented expedition members whose family trees are recorded in accessible archives, this is a tractable genealogical research problem. For others — those with common surnames, those who died without known surviving male-line descendants, those whose family histories were disrupted by emigration or other biographical disruptions — it may be very difficult or impossible.
Douglas Stenton’s public comments after the Fitzjames identification and after the 2026 announcements have consistently included a call for living male relatives of expedition members to come forward. The appeal reflects the specific logic of the identification program: each additional comparison sample potentially unlocks an identification from the existing bone collection at NgLj-2. As of 2026, six of the 129 men have been identified. The remaining 123 — most of whose remains have not been found and whose fates at specific locations along the march route are not documented — present a broader challenge, but even among the identified bone collection from NgLj-2, there are specimens whose identities may be resolvable if the right comparison DNA can be found.