CAMDEN, S.C., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Historic Camden Foundation and FHD Forensics today announced a groundbreaking partnership aimed at identifying America’s first unknown Revolutionary War combatants. The Rev War Forensic Institute of the Historic Camden Foundation was inspired by the forensic genealogical investigation of the Camden Fourteen, men who were killed in action at the Battle of Camden in 1780.
“The 2022/2023 efforts to recover and re-inter these individuals was just the beginning of honoring their sacrifices,” commented Southwick “Cary” Briggs, executive director, Historic Camden Foundation. “The ultimate honor is the ability to thank the unknowns by name and fill in the missing pieces of a modern-day family tree, which is what the institute is working to do.”
FHD Forensics president Allison Peacock serves as the institute’s executive director. “Nowhere in the world has a group come together to research, document, and name America’s oldest fallen,” noted Peacock. “We are not only announcing our formal establishment as an organization, but we’re also sharing what we’ve learned to date about the first two of the fourteen men from the Battle of Camden. Learning more about them is a mystery 244 years in the making.”
Santa Cruz, California-based ancient DNA experts, Astrea Forensics performed DNA extractions from bone fragments and completed whole-genome sequencing to create the profiles. “Two-hundred-year-old remains are young when compared to samples we often work with,” said Astrea’s lab director, Cristina Verdugo, Ph.D. “However, these are the oldest samples Astrea Forensics has produced genealogy profiles for and they are much older than most forensics cases.”
After loading their profiles into public databases, FHD Forensics began the process of searching for matches with living individuals and creating a family tree that spans more than two centuries. “Our team is tracing seven to nine generations for each match,” noted Peacock. “We believe that the genetic distance between these men and their living descendants has never been attempted before in a John Doe investigation.”
Preliminary profiles on the first two Camden subjects were released this summer and research continues.
Camden Subject 9B is a fourteen- to eighteen-year-old boy from Annapolis, Maryland. His closest relatives have the surnames Beall, Browne, Cheney, Davidge, Griffith, Pumphrey, Ridgley, Stewart, Wade, Warfield, Welsh, and Westall – all prominent Anne Arundel County, Maryland founding families.
Camden Subject 11A is believed to be of early Jamestown Colony descent, with one parent from an early 18th century Ulster Scot or Irish immigrant family. Ancestral surnames in common with his genetic matches are Alexander, Beam, Birchfield, Boone, Bray, Cannady/Kennedy, Coleman, Embry, Hitchcock, Kash, McComb, Nickell, Owen, Poage, Scott, Soward/Seward, Taulbee/Tolbey, Waters, and Wilson.
Research for this subject has already revealed an inaccurate report that one Virginia artilleryman did not die at Camden as reported by multiple sources, including the Library of Virginia.
Researchers are currently seeking male DNA test subjects with the following colonial Anne Arundel County, Maryland surnames: Pumphrey, Davidge, Griffith, Ridgley, and Warfield.
Male test subjects with the colonial Virginia surnames Bray, Nickell, Owen, Soward/Seward, and Taulbee are also sought.
“These combatants protected one thing, and that was the thought of liberty,” noted Briggs. “We look forward to sharing the unique DNA stories of the Camden combatants and their families in a dedicated space being developed on the Historic Camden campus.”
Those interested in joining the study or contributing DNA are encouraged to visit RevWarForensicInstitute.org/Join and complete an intake form.
To learn more about the institute’s findings, visit their website.
Media contact:
Jennifer Howard
843.709.4192
[email protected]
SOURCE Rev War Forensic Institute
