Catoctin illustration (IMAGE)
Caption
Genomes are sequenced from 27 people of African ancestry who were buried in unmarked graves at Catoctin Furnace Maryland, where enslaved people labored from 1774 until 1850. These individuals are depicted as a tree trunk with 27 threads forming a double helix whose leaves (shaped like chromosomes) are the 41,799 modern relatives discovered in this study, some of whom are likely direct descendants. At the roots are 271 names of people known to have been enslaved at Catoctin Furnace, likely including some of the individuals sequenced here. These results show how combining ancient DNA technology with the massive databases generated by Direct-to-Consumer ancestry testing can recover lost roots.
Credit
Oliver Uberti
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noncommercial use, with credit
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Original content