The genetic legacy of African Americans from Catoctin Furnace

Abstract

Few African Americans have been able to trace family lineages back to ancestors who died before the 1870 United States Census, the first in which all Black people were listed by name. We analyzed 27 individuals from Maryland’s Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery (1774–1850), identifying 41,799 genetic relatives among consenting research participants in 23andMe, Inc.’s genetic database. One of the highest concentrations of close relatives is in Maryland, suggesting that descendants of the Catoctin individuals remain in the area. We find that many of the Catoctin individuals derived African ancestry from the Wolof or Kongo groups and European ancestry from Great Britain and Ireland. This study demonstrates the power of joint analysis of historical DNA and large datasets generated through direct-to-consumer ancestry testing.

The ancestry and geographical origins of St Helena’s liberated Africans

“…Future research based on a larger sample may yet reveal more complex histories, while genetic testing involving the local community on St Helena has the potential to reveal long-lost connections with living descendants on and off the island. 76 of the project as well as Nathan Wales, Ian Dull, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. The research was supported by the European Union through the Marie Sk1odowska-Curie Actions under grant agreement no.…”

Improving data archiving practices in ancient genomics

“…The data analysed in this study was obtained from the following archive study accessions: PRJEB54831 (ENA) 8 , 94 , PRJEB51180 (ENA) 9 , 95 , HRA001777 (GSA) 10 , 96 , PRJEB52849 (ENA) 11 , 97 , PRJEB42656 (ENA) 12 , 98 , PRJEB52230 (ENA) 13 , 99 , SRP352154 (SRA) 14 , 100 , SRP455000 (SRA) 15 , 101 , PRJEB51440 (ENA) 16 , 102 , PRJEB56773 (ENA) 17 , 103 , PRJEB49291 (ENA) 18 , 104 , PRJEB42781 (ENA) 19 , 105 , PRJEB46734 (ENA) 20 , 106 , SRP356017 (SRA) 21 , 107 , PRJEB42269 (ENA) 22 , 108 , PRJEB47891 (ENA) 23 , 109 , PRJEB54899 (ENA) 24 , 110 , PRJEB43715 (ENA) 25 , 111 , PRJEB39134 (ENA) 26 , 112 , PRJEB46162 (ENA) 27 , 113 , PRJEB46875 (ENA) 28 , 114 , PRJEB44430 (ENA) 29 , 115 , PRJEB42199 (ENA) 30 , 116 , PRJEB38555 (ENA) 31 , 117 , PRJEB55327 (ENA) 32 , 118 , PRJEB56213 (ENA) 33 , 119 , PRJEB51862 (ENA) 34 , 120 , PRJEB58698 (ENA) 35 , 121 , PRJEB62503 (ENA) 36 , 122 , PRJEB66319 (ENA) 37 ,…”