“In the first effort of its kind, researchers now have linked DNA from 27 African Americans buried in the cemetery to nearly 42,000 living relatives.” The New York Times reports discoveries in a cemetery at the Catoctin Furnace historic site in Frederick County. Several thousand of those 42,000 are closely related cousins and some direct descendants still live in Maryland.
The Catoctin Iron Furnace begins operations in the 1770s. For the next 50 years, most of the heavy labor at the furnace falls to enslaved Africans. Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates celebrates this breakthrough, saying the DNA research proves that many African Americans never left Maryland in contrast to the 20th century Great Migration. It also allows current descendants to follow the DNA links of those in the cemetery back to distinct African origins.
