The question of why more identifications have not been made from the 451-bone NgLj-2 collection is partly answered by the genealogical requirement. Each identification requires a living comparison subject. Finding living male-line descendants of expedition crew members requires genealogical research specific to each individual — different names, different family trees, different archival sources. The pace of identifications reflects the pace at which suitable comparison subjects can be found and contacted, not simply the pace of laboratory analysis.
Stenton’s consistent public appeals for living relatives to come forward are part of the effort to accelerate this process. The appeal is specific: male relatives in the paternal line — men who share a Y-chromosome lineage with an expedition member — are what the laboratory needs. Any man who knows or suspects he has a paternal-line ancestor connected to the Franklin expedition is potentially a comparison subject.
The practical challenge is that 180 years have passed since the expedition sailed. Family trees have spread, dispersed, been disrupted by emigration and by the ordinary losses of family memory. Men who might carry the Y-chromosome signatures of expedition crew members may not know they have that connection. The genealogical work required to find them — the same kind of work that Tetteroo did for Fitzjames’s Gambier line — must be done individually, for each potential identification, against the specific genealogical record of each crew member.
The work continues. The 451 bones at NgLj-2 include the remains of at least thirteen individuals, of whom six have now been named. The other seven, at minimum, remain anonymous pending either genealogical research that finds their comparison subjects or technological developments that make other forms of identification feasible.