The Patagonian Bones | Welsh Settlers Documentary | Timeline

Feb 1, 2020 | Following the discovery in 1995 of a set of human remains in a coffin on the coast of Patagonia in Argentina, a team of scientists set out to find out if they belonged to the long-lost grave of Catherine Roberts, the first Welsh woman to die in Patagonia shortly after she arrived with the first group of settlers in 1865.

A first investigation of the DNA of the bones revealed that they belonged to a woman in her 40s of northern European origin, which matched Catherine. But to solve the mystery once and for all, they needed to find a descendant to compare the DNA. Enter Nia Olwen Ritchie, a fire fighter from present-day northern Wales who travelled to Argentina to donate her DNA and solve the mystery.