The Natural History Museum in Basel led a team of researchers that uncovered the mystery identity of the body, which was discovered in 1975 while renovations were being done on Basel’s Barfüsser Church.

She was buried in front of the church’s altar, which local historians said was only permitted for wealthy Basel family members, but there was no gravestone to indicate her identity.

Thanks to the most up to date methods, scientists were able to extract DNA material from the mummy’s big toe.

The results presented on Thursday revealed that the mummy was a member of a well-established Basel family, the Bischoffs.

With a 99.8 per cent probability that the descendants and the mummy were all from the same maternal line, the scientists and historians were confident that the mummy is Anna Catharina Bischoff.

She was born in Basel in 1719 and married a pastor in 1738 before giving birth to seven children – with only two surviving childhood.

Her daughter Anna married a man named Christian Hubert Baron Pfeffel von Kriegelstein whose fifth generation relative Marie Luise von Pfeffel married a Stanley Fred Williams. Their daughter Yvonne married Osman Wilfred Johnson Kemal and their son, Stanley Johnson, went on to have Mr Johnson.

Mr Johnson hasn’t commented on the discovery of his long lost relative, but he is aware of the von Kriegelstein connection, having once told the BBC programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ that…

Rev Judy Peterson has been stripped of her credentials as a leader within the Illinois-based Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) after a picture of the ceremony emerged on social media.

The campus pastor at North Park University in Chicago admitted officiating at the wedding of two men, one of whom was a former student and colleague of hers.

In a statement seen by the Chicago Tribune, the ECC said: “A pastor’s credential is not one’s own; it is extended in trust by the Covenant to serve under the auspices of the Covenant.”

The ECC said it would not discuss the possibility of Rev Peterson regaining her credentials until June 2018.

Rev Peterson has also been placed on paid sabbatical by bosses at North Park University, a Christian liberal arts institution (pictured below).

In a statement released by Mission Friends 4 Inclusion – a community of progressive ECC followers – Rev Peterson defended her actions.

She said: “I joined together two brothers in Christ who deeply love one another and desire to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, two men who do not possess the gift of celibacy.

“I discerned this care not because I was caving to cultural norms, but because I was seeking to follow the Jesus I know, who healed on the Sabbath, thus breaking a long held religious rule, one in fact written in stone, in order to…