JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) — Scientists' hopes that DNA testing would identify a nearly 400-year-old skeleton found at Jamestown have been dashed, but they remain confident that the remains are those of an unsung founder of North America's first English settlement.
American and British scientists had hoped DNA they believe to be of Bartholomew Gosnold would match with that of a woman buried in England who they had thought was his sister. Tests, however, found the woman wasn't a blood relative of Gosnold, the nonprofit Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities announced Thursday.
"Was I disappointed? Of course," said Bill Kelso, the association's director of archaeology at Jamestown.
Kelso remains convinced, however, that researchers have correctly identified Gosnold based on historical, archaeological and forensic evidence.