Using DNA To Connect Living People To Enslaved Ironworkers At Catoctin Furnace

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Come, Tell Us How You Lived: 50 Years of Research at Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In August 2023, “The Genetic Legacy of African Americans from Catoctin Furnace” was published in Science, demonstrating that it is possible to wed the power of massive direct-to-consumer ancestry databases with ancient DNA technology by using the first reliable approach for identifying identical-by-descent (IBD) connections between present-day and historical people.

Key findings:

1. We identify 41,799 modern relatives. Of these, 2,975 are extremely close and include direct descendants.

2. We trace enslaved peoples’ origins in Africa. By sampling DNA from historical people with closer ties to Africa, we show that the enslaved workers at Catoctin derive from a small number of African groups, particularly the Wolof of West Africa and the Kongo of Central Africa.

3. We restore personal stories. Families are being reconnected with ancestors buried within the Catoctin African American cemetery.

4. Our NEH funded Descendant Communicator informed descendants, provided critical support, and organized a descendant reunion.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Come, Tell Us How You Lived: 50 Years of Research at Catoctin Furnace, Maryland   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow