The body is that of 67-year-old Anna Catharina Bischoff, who was born in 1719 in Strasbourg, France, and died in 1787 in Basel. She is believed to be Johnson’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, according to researchers who had been testing her body since 2015 and announced their findings on Thursday.
The mummy was buried in the family tomb of Isaak Bischoff, a hospital director in 17th-century Basel, in the city’s Barfüsser church. Its identity had eluded researchers for decades.
Anna Bischoff is believed to have died of mercury poisoning, a common treatment for syphilis in her time. The high concentration of mercury in her body is what preserved it enough for it to be exhumed and studied.
How Anna Catharina Bischoff may have looked.
SRF
The link to Johnson was established after researchers traced Anna Bischoff’s family tree using DNA extracted from her corpse. They discovered she was a descendent of Johann Froben, a printer in Basel at the beginning of the 16th century. Bischoff had seven children, two of whom reached adulthood, and one of her daughters married a baron by the name of Pfeffel von Kriegelstein. That baron is part of a direct line of descendants in Johnson’s family tree.
Referring to the fact that Anna Bischoff is believed to have served as a nurse to syphilis patients, Johnson tweetedExternal link upon learning of the link, “Very excited to hear about my late great grand ‘mummy’ – a pioneer in sexual health care. Very proud.”
The UK Foreign Secretary is related to Anna Bischoff through the lineage of his father, Stanley Johnson, according to the BBC.
As a Swiss Abroad, how do you feel about the emergence of more conservative family policies in some US states?
In recent years several US states have adopted more conservative policies on family issues, abortion and education. As a Swiss citizen living there, how do you view this development?
Swiss federal office sees no reason to end deportations of asylum-seekers to Croatia
This content was published on
Switzerland's State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) continues to deport asylum-seekers to Croatia. It thus rejects a demand from the Swiss Refugee Council in mid-February, which called for a halt to the returns.
ChatGPT responds to negative emotions and therapy, research shows
This content was published on
Stressful information can also cause anxiety in artificial intelligence (AI). As scientists in Zurich have shown, it's even possible to calm the GPT-4 AI model with mindfulness exercises.
Mortgage benchmark fall paves way for potential rent cuts in Switzerland
This content was published on
Switzerland’s national benchmark for mortgage costs dropped to the level it had before the global inflation surge, paving the way for potential rent reductions.
Switzerland ‘deeply concerned’ by Trump’s death penalty order
This content was published on
Switzerland has told the UN Human Rights Council that it is "deeply concerned" by US President Donald Trump's recent executive order to strengthen capital punishment at federal and state level.
Blatter, Platini return to court for new fraud trial over CHF2 million FIFA payment
This content was published on
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and former UEFA President Michel Platini appeared in court in Switzerland on Monday accused of fraud - 2.5 years after they were cleared.
Israel criticises Swiss decision to host Middle East conference in Geneva on Friday
This content was published on
Israel has condemned Switzerland for planning to host a meeting on international humanitarian law in the Middle East next Friday in Geneva.
Centre Party’s Franziska Biner elected to Valais government
This content was published on
Voters in canton Valais in southern Switzerland elected Franziska Biner to the cantonal government in the first round of voting, beating off more established politicians.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Basel police archives reveal lives of past city residents
This content was published on
Nazi sympathisers, a brothel owner, a political refugee and an independent young woman – all feature in Basel’s archive of immigration police files.
This content was published on
The Valley of the Kings is like a Holy Grail for Egyptologists. Situated on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, it is the burial site of many pharaohs and members of royal families or powerful nobles of the Egyptian Empire. It was here, in 1922, that the most famous discovery in the history…
This content was published on
Museums the world over still display archaeological treasures that sometimes are not legally theirs. While governments wrangle over their rightful ownership, looters continue to plunder sites to feed a prospering black-market. Now, an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times is trying to set up “WikiLoot”, a way of crowd-sourcing information on looted antiquities via…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.