Using a groundbreaking method, researchers have likely identified the lost remains of the second governor of the colony of Maryland.

They’ve also found 1.3 million genetic relatives of Maryland’s first colonists who are alive today.

“Then we have 9,000 people who are close enough that they’re very likely direct descendants or very close relatives,” Éadaoin Harney, a senior scientist at 23andMe Research Institute, told WTOP.

She is the lead author of a study published last week in the journal Current Biology.

In addition to the genetic testing company 23andMe, the study involved scientists from the Smithsonian, Harvard University and St. Mary’s City, Maryland.

Their work was built on previous studies and the discovery over decades of dozens of bodies in a graveyard in St. Mary’s City. Established in 1634 in what is today St. Mary’s County, it’s recognized as the first permanent English settlement in Maryland.

In 2016, through genetic testing, it was revealed that remains found in three lead coffins in the city’s Chapel Field cemetery belonged to the colony’s fifth governor Philip Calvert, his first wife and a son he had with his second wife.

The latest study was aimed at identifying the remains of 49 other people buried in the graveyard.

“Our goal was really to learn about the ancestry of these individuals, to learn about their genetic legacy. So, who in the United States are they related to today? And our big goal was really to see if we could use DNA to help re-identify these historical individuals,” said Harney.

Researchers compared DNA from those bodies with those of more than 11.5 million people in 23andMe’s genetic database.

When they found two living people with strong DNA connections to one grave, they asked for and received permission to study their family trees.

They discovered their family trees overlapped in three places, and after an incredible amount of additional digging made a blockbuster discovery.

They determined the likely identities of three previously unknown people laid to rest in the cemetery, including Maryland’s second governor, Thomas Greene, who lived from 1609 to 1651.

It’s the first time ancient DNA has been used in this way to identify people in a situation where researchers had no idea who they might be.

“There have been ancient DNA studies where they will say ancient DNA has helped to identify some historical figure or some historical person, but those have always been based on the archeology, based on the history, researchers have had a very strong prior hypothesis about the identity of that person. In this case, we had no idea who these individuals might have been. We had no hypothesis. We just let the DNA guide us,” Harney said.

The colonists who arrived in St. Mary’s City sailed there from England aboard the Ark and the Dove, but another thing this study determined was that most of them likely originally lived in western England, Wales and Ireland.

The study also found genetic evidence backing up historical accounts that many Maryland Catholics moved to Kentucky between the late 1700s and early 1800s for reasons which included escaping religious bias.

Harney is excited about what this new method could lead to in the future.

“Potentially we can apply this to lots of other sites, to lots of other historical people to try to figure out and re-identify people from the past,” she said.

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