The Morton Family DNA Project has recently made a discovery regarding two of the Project subgroups, that has long puzzled Morton researchers regarding whether Richard Morton of Hatfield, MA  (1640 - 1710) was the grandson of George Morton of Plymouth (1585-1624).  

To ensure that the results were relevant, it was important to look at descendants whose genealogy was well-documented at every generation back to either Richard Morton or George Morton.  It was also important to test descendants from at least two different sons of each of the two Morton progenitors to help substantiate the results.  The Y-DNA test results from FT-DNA showed:

George Morton Descendants:

• Two descendants of George Morton, one from his son John, and another from his son, Ephraim, match each other, with a 91% chance of having a common ancestor within 12 generations (back to George Morton).  
• The two descendants share the same male haplogroup, I-M253

Richard Morton Descendants:

• Two descendants of Richard Morton, one from his son, Joseph and another from his son Abraham, match each other with a 98% chance of having a common ancestor within 10 generations (back to Richard Morton)
• The two descendants share the same male haplogroup, R-M269

The George Morton descendants do not match the Richard Morton descendants, and are even in different haplogroups.  Haplogroups branched out thousands of years apart, so people in different male haplogroups cannot be related in any genealogical sense.

In conclusion, the DNA evidence indicates that George Morton of Plymouth descendants and Richard Morton of Hatfield descendants are in no way related, indicating several historic histories/genealogies were mistaken, and the resulting on-line “records” stating that George Morton is the grandfather of Richard Morton are not accurate.

The negative DNA matching results of Richard Morton descendants to George Morton descendants now gives the Project the incentive to find individuals to test who can shed light on:

• Who Richard Morton’s source family was and where they lived (some clues might indicate a Scottish origin)?
• Was George Morton of Plymouth related to the Mortons of Austerfield, South Yorkshire, England as much historical evidence indicates?