Groundbreaking DNA Analysis Identifies 1.3 Million Living Relatives of Colonial Maryland's Earliest Settlers

Groundbreaking DNA Analysis Identifies 1.3 Million Living Relatives of Colonial Maryland’s Earliest Settlers Experts compared DNA from 49 skeletons buried in a cemetery in St. Mary’s City to genetic data shared by 11.5 million 23andMe users. They also identified a skeleton that be the remains of the colony’s second governor Meilan Solly | Senior Associate Digital Editor, History May 21, 2026 10:49 a.m. ShareCopy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrintAdd as preferred source The exterior of the reconstructed chapel in Historic St. Mary's City, Maryland Maxine Wallace / The Washington Post via Getty Images During the Colonial era, residents of St.

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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Smithsonian Magazine.