The Hamilton Hayward mtDNA Project

Family Tree DNA

November 24, 2019

This project started two years ago as a means to strengthen the genealogical proof argument that Hannah, the wife of John Hamilton (1667-1747) the Yeoman of Concord, as he has become known, was the same woman as Hannah Hayward, born 1670 in Concord, MA, the daughter of Joseph and Hannah Hosmer Hayward.

We know from existing records that Yeoman John was the son of Scottish POW John Hamilton who had been a sixteen-year-old captured by Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and sent to New England as an indentured servant. We know that the town of Charlestown, MA gave the elder John, and other Scotsmen, small plots of land as an act of charity in 1658. Elder John then moved to Concord and married Christian, giving birth to Yeoman John in 1667.

Concord vital records for the mid-1690s, the probable period of marriage for Yeoman John, have been lost, although the births of several of their children were recorded there before they moved to Brookfield, MA in 1701,so for three hundred and fifty years we have not known Hannah’s surname.

Previous research with a strong FAN approach (Family and Neighbors), examination of land deeds and adjacent properties in both towns, probates, town grants and proprietor’s records, family naming patterns, and intermarriages with relatives on both sides, and a mass family-related migration from Concord to Brookfield, had strongly indicated that these two women were one and the same.

The Hamilton/Hayward mtDNA Project was initiated with high hopes to find matching mt-DNA in the living descendants of Hannah Hamilton and the living descendants of Hannah Hosmer Hayward.

You likely know that mtDNA is passed from mother to her children, but only daughters pass it on.  This allowed the project to include both women and men. mtDNA seldom mutates, providing a strong tool to support an existing paper trail.

We identified 45 people as qualified descendants of Hannah Hamilton, descending from her two daughters.  We identified 66 qualified descendants of Hannah Hosmer Hayward, descending from her two remaining daughters, siblings of our hopefully matching Hannah b. 1670.

We wrote letters to each potential participant, explaining the project and offering to pay for the testing should they be willing to join us. Over the two years, eleven people responded, and seven agreed to test.

In the first comparable test results there were several non-matching examples. That prompted a review of original research to pinpoint the cause of the variance and yes, a mistake had been made. Two women born in 1794, in the same town, with the same name, who’s records had been confused over the years. That mistake disqualified two of the testing participants but eliminated the unexplained variances. One participant was unable to submit a viable sample,although several attempts were made.

As a result, our current project status is:

We now have four participants, two men and two women.  Two from the Hannah Hamilton maternal line of descent; one from each daughter. Two from the Hannah Hosmer Hayward maternal line of descent; one from each daughter.

Each tested the full mt-DNA sequence.

Each has the same and matching Haplogroup: K2a6, a very recently developed group, less than 5,000 years old. Only about 4 percent of women carry it.

Each has exact matching HVR1 mutations

Each has exact matching HVR2 mutations

Three have exact matching Coding Region mutations (one has a single Heteroplasmy event, which is a mutation in progress and is considered a match)

One has a single Coding Region mutation difference out of the over 16,000 locations identified.

I have been notified by FTDNA that the results for the Coding Region Mutations are not available to the Public Website Display. They are available to each participant on their individual results page, and to the Administrators. Interested parties may contact the Administrators directly for these specifics, and the results will be included in the formal genealogical proof documents.

This mt-DNA project now serves as a very strong indication that our living descendants have a common female ancestor. Combined with the paper trail research, it is very strongly indicated that that common ancestor is Hannah Hosmer Hayward whose daughter Hannah, b. 1670 in Concord, MA married John Hamilton, the Yeoman of Concord.

The project will remain active. Hopefully more participants will be researched and contacted. For those of you already involved, our deepest gratitude.

The mtDNA test results for the project will now be available on the Family Tree Project Website.

The link is:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/hamilton-hayward

More detailed genealogical proof reportage is in progress, to be shared with the associated family groups and professional journals.

Again, thank you all.

Dan Hamilton

John Hamilton

Administrators– the Hamilton/Hayward Project, Family Tree DNA