The results are in for both our two participants in the Morey Maury DNA study! The participants are male descendants of the Reverend James Maury (1718-1769) and of Abram Fontaine (1731-1784), the two sons of Mary Ann Fontaine and Matthew Maury. The Y-DNA results list a unique number assigned to each of 37 strands of DNA that are uniquely passed from father to son to grandson and so forth, such that our test participants would have the same Y-DNA as ancestor Matthew Maury. The results for our participants are identified in the Paternal Ancestor Name column labeled “Matthew Maury (1686 France – 1755 Virginia)” and “Abram Maury.” The other results in the chart are for Morey descendants. The more strands that match between test participants, the more likely they share a common ancestor. Our participants have no close matches so thus far, there are no other study participants who descend from our Maury family.

At both the 2011 and 2012 annual meetings, the Society’s agreed pursuing the creation a Maury DNA study. In February 2015 we joined with a group of Morey researchers to form the Morey Maury DNA study.

Why did we want descendants from both sons to take the test? There is a 5 percent probability of a non-paternity issue; this probability is removed by testing descendants from two different sons of an early ancestor. As a reminder, we already participate in the Fountain/Fontaine study.

Documenting the Maury Y-DNA that passes through the direct male line largely unchanged would be a tremendous aid to other Maury family researchers who do not know as much about their origins. If they match or do not match our Maury family’s DNA, this would help researchers tailor their research.