Titanic's Unknown Child Victim Identified

The body of an unknown child, a victim of the Titanic disaster nearly 100 years ago, has been identified. The child, 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from England was identified using DNA taken from his remains.

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - Sidney's body was pulled from the frigid North Atlantic on April 21, 1912. He perished along with 1,496 others when the White Star Line's now infamous liner, Titanic, struck and iceberg and sank. Many bodies were recovered, but many have remained lost forever, either entombed within the ship itself or taken by the currents of the Atlantic. Of those that were recovered, authorities used whatever means they could to identify the victims, but the number of victims, and the limited information meant that some were never identified. Sidney was buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia, his marker only reading, "unknown child."

Sidney has been identified twice before, but both identifications remained subject to debate. Originally he was thought to be a 2-year-old Swedish boy, Gösta Leonard Pĺlsson, who was washed overboard as the ship sank, but while doubt remained researchers wanted to make a conclusive identification. To accomplish this, they exhumed the remains, extracted DNA from a bone fragment, and compared the sample to DNA taken from the Pĺlsson family. While the initial DNA results were inconclusive, the results didn't come close enough to be a possible match.

Researchers then expanded their survey to investigate the identity of another five boys under the age of 3, to determine their identities. By working with the remains of all six boys, the researchers were able to narrow the possibility to two children, Eino Viljami Panula, a 13-month-old Finnish boy and Sidney Goodwin.  From there, forensic analysis of the teeth suggested the child was Eino rather than Goodwin, but doubts persisted. Only DNA could provide the conclusive result.

Another DNA examination provided the conclusive results. Joining with the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, experts at identifying DNA taken from human remains, the researchers evaluated a second DNA sample. This sample was better, displaying a rare genetic mutation found in the Goodwin family's mitochondrial DNA. This match made the identification conclusive, the child is Sidney Goodwin.

In June, 2011, the detailed results of the testing will be published in the Forensic Science International: Genetics and can already be read online.

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