There has been some mis-information going around about the details of what happened. These are addressed in Voyage 60, journal of Titanic International Society.
The first was that the Panulas were not informed. He says, " We spoke only publicly once we had personally addressed our strongly felt obligations to the modern Finnish descendants of the Panula child and to the modern descendants of the Goodwin child."
Although apparently, not every descendant was informed, as one relative on this board was not, it seems other Panulas were.
There is no denying that blood samples provided by the Panula family matched the DNA extracted from the bone fragment. Yet, in Ruffman and Parr's continued research on the subject,the three teeth recovered from the shallower and drier grave of the 'Unknown Child' were examined by dental experts who recognized the presence of undergraded dentin which eventually led to a better mtDNA.
The experts said that the teeth were from a very young child. And the mtDNA at that point matched the Panula child.
There were still doubts, as the Mackay Bennet did describe the body as being a 2 year old child. Although mtDNA and HVS1 (hyper variable segment 1) matched Panula, after the program, and with the field of science and DNA ever evolving, Ruffman and Parr began working with HVS2 and that is how it ruled out the Panula child.
Unfortunately, and fortunately, we are still evolving and learning new ways and methods and developing new techniques and that is what apparently happened while attempting to discover the identity of the unknown child.
As the President of TIS noted, internet rumors of what happened and what was said at the BTS convention has not helped.
Phrases such as "I'm hearing', 'pervasive rumors', 'I've been told', etc... It would be just as easy to telephone the Halifax cemetery to find out the real story of the stone!
