A new genetic study has uncovered a remarkable piece of Colonial American history buried quite literally beneath a 17th century chapel in Maryland. Researchers analysed the DNA of 49 people interred at St Mary’s City between 1634 and 1730, revealing that two of Maryland’s early colonial governors were buried there along with their families. Among the graves was also an 8 year old boy with majority African ancestry, laid to rest in a shroud and coffin alongside prominent English settlers, raising questions about whether he was enslaved or held a different status entirely. The findings, published this week, offer a rare genetic window into a settlement whose written records never fully explained who exactly ended up in its cemetery. Governors identified through genetic testing St Mary’s City was founded in 1634 as the capital of the British colony of Maryland, settled largely by people fleeing religious persecution in England. By 1667 the colonists had built a small church known as the Brick Chapel, and decades of excavation around the site have revealed dozens of burials, including three rare lead coffins. The new study, published in the journal Current Biology, confirmed that Philip Calvert, the fifth colonial governor of Maryland, was buried there along with his wife Anne Wolseley Calvert and an infant son. More surprisingly, the researchers were also able to identify Thomas Greene, the second colonial governor, whose burial location had never been confirmed before. This identification was made possible by comparing his DNA against the 23andMe genetic database alongside genealogical records, marking one of the first times ancient DNA has helped identify a historical figure with no prior knowledge of who the remains might belong to. The mystery of the young boy with African ancestry Among the burials, one stood out for reasons that puzzled the research team. An 8 year old boy who died sometime between 1667 and 1704 was found to have largely African derived ancestry, with roughly a quarter to a third European ancestry. Isotope analysis of his bones showed he was born in America rather than brought over from elsewhere. What makes his burial unusual is that he was wrapped in a shroud and placed inside a gable lidded coffin, following English burial customs, and was buried in the same chapel cemetery as the colony’s elite families. During this period, enslaved people were typically buried in separate, often unmarked locations, while indentured servants and free colonists shared cemeteries following English tradition. The boy’s burial in line with those customs has led researchers to suggest he may not have been enslaved, though the line between indentured servitude and enslavement for people of African descent in the 17th century was often blurred, sometimes extending servitude periods well beyond the usual four to seven years. Indentured servants buried without coffins Two other unusual burials belonged to young men in their twenties who died sometime between 1634 and 1667. Chemical signatures in their bones suggested they were recent immigrants from Ireland, and neither was buried in a coffin. Their skeletons showed signs of heavy physical labour and poor health, consistent with the profile of indentured servants rather than free settlers. Indentured servitude was extremely common in Colonial America, accounting for a large share of white immigrants during this period, as such labourers worked off a fixed number of years before being expected to join colonial society as free members. Unlike enslaved people, their period of bondage had a defined end point, though their living and working conditions were often harsh. A genetic link to over a million living relatives The majority of the skeletons examined showed ancestral ties to western England and Wales, matching historical records of who settled St Mary’s City. By cross referencing this ancient DNA with data from research participants, the study’s authors found more than 1.3 million living genetic relatives of this founding colonial population. Interestingly, the largest cluster of close relatives, over 200 people, traced their ancestry to Kentucky, a pattern researchers link to the migration of Maryland’s Catholic families to Kentucky following the Revolutionary War. This kind of clear genetic trail highlights just how much can still be learned from centuries old remains when combined with modern genetic databases. Filling gaps that written records left behind The excavation work behind this study stretches back decades, with the lead coffins containing the Calvert family first uncovered in the 1990s, though their genomes have only now been formally published. Researchers involved in the study noted that while historical documents from the period are unusually detailed, they were never able to fully explain who was buried where or where individual settlers truly came from. Ancient DNA analysis has helped close those gaps, offering fresh insight into the lives, and deaths, of people whose stories were only partly preserved on paper. The study adds a deeply personal dimension to Maryland’s colonial history, revealing individual lives that shaped the early foundations of the state. 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