A syphilis-ridden mummy in Switzerland is a distant ancestor of Boris Johnson

[jpak]

http://www.businessinsider.com/syphilis-mummy-in-basel-related-to-boris-johnson-2018-1

According to SRF, a Swiss TV channel which has produced a documentary on the mummy, she is Anna Catharina Bischoff, an 18th-century clergyman's wife. She was discovered under Basel's Barfüsser Church in the 1970s during renovations.

According to the BBC, Bischoff's identity has been established by scientists with 99.8% certainty. She is Johnson's great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, meaning she is nine generations away from him.

SRF, citing Swiss archives, said that Bischoff lived from 1719 to 1787, and died aged 68 from syphilis.

Bischoff is referred to as a mummy, but she had an ordinary Christian burial, and her body wasn't kept intact on purpose.

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[Iliyah]

1. LOL

[thbobby]

2. syphilis-ridden mummy

Sort of like the one in the White House. Maybe should be the syphilis-ridden dummy for 45.

[MLAA]

4. Good one!

[Hortensis]

3. Anna did good works among the impoverished ill, and it's believed

she might have contracted it from that. A more common way was from one's husband, of course, but (fwiw) hers was a minister.

Wonder what she'd think of this descendant.

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. I'm naming my next band "Syphilis-Ridden Mummy".