Elizabeth Comer: Using DNA to Connect Living People to Enslaved Ironworkers at Catoctin Furnace

Elizabeth Comer, archaeologist and president of the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, introduces us to a facinating project to connect the past with the present. In an effort to learn more about the legacies of twenty-seven African Americans who labored at Catoctin Furnace during the late 18th to early 19th centuries and who were buried in its cemetery, DNA was compared to that of more than nine million people in the 23andMe genetic database. The results were exciting. Over 41,000 modern relatives were identified, of which almost 3,000 are thought to be direct descendants. Elizabeth Commer is the editor of Catoctin Furnace, Portrait of an Iron-Making Village, which will be available for sale after her presentation.