The university’s newest research has matched DNA from remains with living descendants. Researchers have been in contact with 130 families in seven countries.
This has enabled them to identify three more crew members from Erebus, including Able Seaman William Orren, cabin boy David Young and a steward named John Bridgens.
Harry Peglar, a captain from HMS Terror, has also been identified.
There was no evidence of cannibalism on their remains.
When they left their ships, Dr Stenton said the sailors “stepped onto a path that would lead to their own deaths and in a sense into obscurity”.
“The families of the modern-day descendants don’t really have much information about what happened to them,” he said.
“I think it’s very fitting that the descendants of the men who never made it home are helping to write this new chapter about the expedition.”
The researchers have also helped create a facial likeness of David Young, the cabin boy.
“When you combine the forensic facial reconstructions…with the DNA work, I think it brings people into the story in a way that they can relate to it. The general public certainly, but also the family members,” said Dr Stenton.
