 In December 2010 , descendants of Edwin Booth reported that they obtained permission to exhume the Shakespearean actor 's body to obtain DNA samples . However , Bree Harvey , a spokesperson from the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge , Massachusetts , where Edwin Booth is buried , refuted reports that the family had contacted them and requested to exhume Edwin 's body . The family hopes to obtain DNA samples from artifacts belonging to John Wilkes , or from remains such as vertebrae stored at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland . On March 30 , 2013 , museum spokesperson Carol Johnson announced the family 's request to extract DNA from the vertebrae had been rejected . 
