A team of population geneticists at 23andMe have discovered the genetic connections between more than 40,000 23andMe users and a population of enslaved and free African Americans who lived in Catoctin Furnace, Maryland between 1776-1850. In their research, the team considered the best way to inform descendants and other genetic relatives about their connection to the site. Their findings and the ethical dilemmas they faced were published in the American Journal of Human Genetics on August 3rd.
The authors, led by Éadaoin Harney, a population geneticist at 23andMe, state, “This study required us to address several ethical issues that had not been explicitly covered in the existing literature on ethics in ancient DNA. This work has contributed to discussions at community and national levels about the role scientific approaches can play in uncovering information about the lives of enslaved individuals that would otherwise have been lost to history.”
The team’s genetic analysis aimed to support the objectives of community stakeholders who aim to “identify and nurture a descendant community in Catoctin” by establishing previously unknown connections to living descendants. They analyzed human remains from an unrecorded African American cemetery under the care of the Smithsonian, in collaboration with The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society and self-identified descendants of the Catoctin Furnace community.
The majority of stakeholders agreed that these genetic results should be shared with relevant 23andMe users, but only with their explicit consent. The researchers acknowledge that individuals may find it distressing to discover ancestral links to slavery, so an opt-in program could offer users the choice to learn about their genetic connections to Catoctin Furnace.
The team also cautions geneticists to be mindful of the concept of “biologically gatekeeping” regarding who is considered a Catoctin Furnace stakeholder. There is already an established community of stakeholders connected by cultural and familial ties, and no individual’s genetic results should diminish their group identity.
The authors state, “Presenting inaccurate or confusing results could potentially harm community stakeholders, individuals or organizations responsible for preserving human remains, those who educate the public about specific historical figures or sites, or the general public’s understanding. Reports generated by genetic ancestry companies should include sufficient educational content and detail so that customers with shared genetic connections can interpret their results without external guidance.”
Although 23andMe possesses a genetic database more than ten times larger than any publicly available genetic dataset, making it an optimal organization for identifying Catoctin descendants and relatives, many genetic researchers argue that companies should not profit financially from ancient genetic datasets associated with living descendants. To address this concern, 23andMe, along with collaborators at Harvard and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, agreed that the Catoctin data could not be used for non-research purposes until it was made publicly accessible.
Furthermore, 23andMe refrains from sharing individual-level genetic data to protect their customers’ privacy, but this can hinder other researchers from reproducing published findings. To tackle this dilemma, 23andMe has committed to reanalyzing genetic comparisons from this study upon request by academic and non-profit researchers, but only for a limited period of time.
“There is no perfect solution to this problem, but we must consider that utilizing a genetic database as extensive as 23andMe’s in ancient DNA research enables studies that would otherwise be impossible. In fact, the high research participation rate at 23andMe may be partly attributed to the strong privacy protections offered to research participants,” the authors conclude in their paper.