A fascinating story from Wales. Sometime between 1743 and 1745, a smuggler from  Llanfairynghornwy on  the isle of Anglesey, rescued two boys, in stormy seas in the middle of the night – the only survivors of an apparent shipwreck. Both boys had a swarthy complexion and neither spoke Welsh or English. One boy died shorty after being taken to a local doctor. The other was given the name Evan Thomas by the doctor, who subsequently adopted him. The boy proved to have a distinct ability to set bones. As he grew, he also developed the use of splits and traction to align and immobilize broken bones to speed healing. He taught his skills to his children and grandchildren. Remarkably, eight generations of his family dominated the discipline of bone-setting for two and a half centuries. His great-grandson, Hugh Owen Thomas, the first of the family to be formally trained as a physician, would be hailed as the “father of modern orthopaedics.” Hugh’s nephew, (Evan Thomas’ great-great-grandson,) Sir Robert Jones, was the first physician to use X rays to align broken bones and is credited with reducing fracture deaths on the western front in World War I from 80% in 1916, to just 8% by the end of the war through the use of splints developed by his uncle.

But who was the shipwrecked boy called Evan Thomas? Where did he come? How did he end up wrecked off on the wilder shores of Wales? Now, analysis of his descendant’s DNA may provide an answer. By tradition, it was assumed that the boy was Spanish, based on his complexion and number of Spanish ships to frequent the coast in the 18th century.  Preliminary DNA results have almost ruled out a Spanish origin, suggest that he was probably Eastern European. A full analysis of the DNA will not be available until later next year. Until then, the question of why a boy with such special abilities would wash up on the Anglesey coast will remain a mystery.

Anglesey Bone Setters DNA Project

Genes hold secret of shipwrecked Anglesey bone setter