Twenty-five years ago, a team of researchers excavated a cemetery in West Virginia in hopes of finding George Washington’s younger brother. Five graves were unearthed and a tentative identification was made after tests on small bones taken from these graves. A new DNA analysis has now confirmed three identities of the site.
Two of the men were George Washington’s great-nephews – George Steptoe Washington and Samuel Walter Washington – and another set of bones belonged to their mother, Lucy Penn Washington.The team’s identification of the skeletal remains was publish Today in science.
Charla Marshall, a molecular anthropologist with the Armed Forces DNA Identification Division of the Armed Forces Forensic System, said: “This particular case gave us the opportunity to test the extended kinship prediction method we developed using a group of people who require identification. of known, degraded DNA samples.” lab and senior author of the study, in Cell release.
The research team used Y-chromosome DNA to study paternal relationships in the Washington family tree. A new method of sequencing genetic data allowed the team to study nearly 100,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to better predict ancestry between individuals. SNPs are specific combinations of base pairs on a DNA strand.
“These SNP methods will give us a way to make positive identifications from nuclear DNA,” Marshall added. “Very importantly, these methods will allow us to expand the pool of viable family reference sample donors to third- and fourth-degree relatives in an effort to increase the number of DNA-assisted identifications, particularly of those from past conflicts such as the Second The World Wars, the Korean War, the Cold War, and Southeast Asia/Vietnam.”
George Washington had no children of his own, although he and Martha Washington raised children from a previous marriage, their children, and a number of nieces and nephews. According to the Washington Post, Washington has nine siblings, three of whom are brothers. Mount Vernon’s website. One of the brothers was Samuel Washington, who owned the Harwood estate in northeastern West Virginia. Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette visited the historic site; James and Dolly Madison were married there. Harewood Cemetery has unearthed skeletal remains that were first studied twenty-five years ago.
Researchers used reference DNA from Samuel Walter Washington, a known descendant of Samuel Washington, to confirm genetic relationships between the deceased. There are many Samuels in the Washington family tree, but originally Samuel Washington’s grandson was Dr. Samuel Walter Washington; his grandson was Dr. Samuel Walter Washington, and his grandson was used by the team as reference DNA Samuel Walter Washington.
Are you still paying attention? OK Here’s a fun fact: Lucy Payne, the sister of Dolley Madison and the mother of the aforementioned grandnephew, whose remains were also identified in this study, was Believed to be the first bride to be married in the White House.There Payne married Supreme Court Associate Justice Thomas Todd March 29, 1812——Tomorrow 212 years ago!
Identification is a miracle of DNA testing, it has its own unique features Pitfalls When Looking Back at One’s Ancestors and Even in medical applications. But in this case, the analysis holds up and corroborates some of the more distant branches in the family tree of America’s most famous Founding Fathers.
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