Anglesey Bone Setters: geographical origins by DNA sequencing

by John Rowlands

One dark, stormy night, a boy of eleven years old is said to have washed up on the shores of Anglesey, north Wales. Evan became a talented healer of animal and then human bones, later spawning a family who sparked the new discipline of orthopaedics. Perhaps most famous for the invention of the Thomas Splint, the Anglesey bone setters are celebrated across the world for their life-saving ingenuity and skill. This study report recounts an attempt to elucidate the geographical origins of Evan Thomas using DNA - the first time a whole genome from a Welsh person has been sequenced.

123 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 11, 2015