Well, the kinfolk are long dead, of course.
Consider the times.
Back then, discoveries like that ran counter to religious beliefs.
It's entirely possible that the church got rid of them or the contemporary traveling freak shows bought them and lost them.
I have no idea.
I only know that the locals are nothing if not pragmatic and sceptical to a fault.
My no-nonsense grandfather and one of our neighbors both claimed to have sighted something akin to a "Bigfoot" with the neighbor actually having her house trailer nearly shaken apart by the thing.
There were visible marks on the trailer afterwards and I stayed away from that area for a very long time when horse back riding.
I once had the horse spook at a large *something* that appeared darker than the surrounding darkness as we passed a backroad trash dumping area one night.
I have no idea what it was and was not over-inclined to go back and investigate.
I simply took the horse's word for it that we should get the hell away from there immediately and speedily.
[thank God horses have great night vision and can run full tilt in pitch darkness]
I went back there during the day and there was no tree or other object that would've accounted for whatever I/he saw the night before.
[I'm not a person who especially "believes" in Bigfoot, anyway]
*shrug*
Old mountains are funny places to live, sometimes.