"It is actually beyond my comprehension that such a thing could be done. To the relatives, here is your cousin and uncle, after 246 years, home from the war."

This was the reaction of Dr. Steve Smith of SC Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology' (SCIAA) when asked how it felt for our sister organization FHD Forensics to have identified a young man who fell on the Camden Battlefield, a site Smith and his SCIAA colleague Jim Legg have been studying, interpreting, and protecting for three decades.

Team FHD recently solved their first 246 year old mystery. When they walked a Revolutionary War battlefield in 2023, they were asked, "Can you do what you do to identify John Does with men who died over 200 years ago?" They said, "Maybe." And, now they've identified the first profile!

Next up is Camden 11A, a mid-stage Camden Fourteen investigation with solid common ancestral surnames and genetic networks that requires several more months of research and testing. We are embarking on YDNA testing now. While we seek a new grant later this summer, your tax deductible donation will help us keep up our work to name another American hero.

The remains of 14 combatants were rescued from erosion and relic hunters in 2022 and honored with a lavish military funeral in 2023. Thirteen of the men were reburied as Unknown in 2024. Traceable genetic profiles for two of the soldiers were acquired in October 2024.

Over the next year, an expansive genealogy research project took shape - including 800 participants who submitted their family trees, and tens of thousands of genetic matches in public databases. When their first genetic genealogy research grant was exhausted right as one of the subjects was close to being identified, the board of Genealogy For Justice agreed to help raise late stage funding to complete the identification of Camden 9B. The genetic relatives and project participants stepped in and the rest is history!

Continental 11A - Camden Fourteen

Bridge funding to bring home another Camden Fourteen identification