SOMERTON MAN: THE EAR COMPARISON, DETAILED IMAGE. YOU DECIDE...

SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISONS WITH SM's EAR

Above is an image that compares 5 ears from different people with that of the Somerton Man. The list is as follows:

1. Helmut Hendon

2. Jestyn's Grandson, this mans mother was born after SMs time.

3. Somerton Man

4. Jestyn's son, Robin.

5. Jestyn's husband known as Prosper

6 Jestyn's elder brother.

I first published this image in 2009 whilst a member of the University of Adelaide Facebook page.

SIGNIFICANCE

This image is significant and very relevant for the following reasons, the claim has been made for some time that Robin is SM's son and as proof of that claim, it was stated that Robin shared the same kind of ear as SM. It was also stated that this was a rare type of ear as shown below:

When you compare the 6 comparison images to this last image, you will see that Robins ear appears to show more in common in terms of structure and shape with Prospers and Jestyn's brothers ear and even that of Helmut Hendon. Jestyn's grandson also appears to have an ear that has a larger Cymba than Cavum

The 'rare' condition is in fact shared by 1% of the population, bearing that number in mind, if you consider the population of Australia in 1946 was approximately 7.5 million. That means that that in 1946 there were 35000 males in Australia with that condition, if we say 25% of them would fit the bill in terms of age in 1946 then that would mean there would have been 7500 possible fathers for Robin in Australia based on this theory. If we then consider that Jestyn was in Sydney in 1946 the population there was approximately 1.5 million, using our example above, then in Sydney there would have been close to 1000 men that could have been a candidate.

It would be valuable to have a photograph close up of Jestyn's ear and teeth and those of her family as well as those of Robin, perhaps that is something that could be done?

DNA

Much has been made of the issue of the Somerton Man DNA and the links to America. I noted that no one has suggested that there was a match between Robin and SM in that regard. However, the Thompson/Thomson family have long established heritage in the USA:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/thompson/about/results

I could be mistaken here, but I recall some time ago being told that Prosper Thomson had a number of relatives in the US and may even have visited them. Perhaps Misca or Byron could take a look at that.

I have written this post in response to a number of email requests received over the past few months, it would have to say that it has long been a source of interest for me that such scant basic information has been presented and never really questioned.

Was SM Robin's Father?

In the end, will it matter much if SM had American roots? We have already found strong US connections to the internees; our ballet dancer, for example, had strong connections to Peggy Guggenheim , and George Telstcher, the internee designer of the Hay Bank Notes, had a brother in Massachusetts.  The bigger question is, was he Robins father? As you can see from the images there is room for doubt but again he could have been. If he was, what we would have to address is just where and when SM and Jestyn met up in October 1946. It could have been Sydney but that is necessarily so, they could have met up anywhere. Jestyn may have been on leave for example.

One possible clue is Jestyn's statement that implied she was involved in teaching English to Russians. The CPA in Sydney used to run such classes and not that far from the Hospital where Jestyn was supposedly training. We have one teacher of Languages and a Phd at that from the University of Vienna. Clive is doing some extra digging on that subject as I write.

Thanks to Misca, we have found more links on Trove with at least one pointing to a teacher of langages from Vienna who had a Phd but this time with just a box number and not an address or telephone number. At least we think it's a box number.