Introduction
Since 2007, the Zachariah Dutton DNA Project has been working to pierce the obscurity surrounding Zachariah Dutton’s origins through the technology of DNA genealogy. Some of the key questions we are seeking to answer through DNA testing are:
- Who are the parents of Zachariah Dutton? Where did he come from?
- Who was Zachariah Dutton’s unknown first wife, our ancestor?
- How does the Dutton family relate to the Penn family, which also originated in Charles County, Maryland, and followed Zachariah’s descendants to North Alabama?
- What families might be descended from Zachariah Dutton whose “paper trail” has been lost or obscured?
We have conducted tests on both Y-DNA — the Y-chromosome inherited by males along the paternal line — and autosomal DNA — DNA inherited by both males and females on all the rest of the chromosomes. This work has been successful so far and is helping to answer our questions, but more testing is needed and any Dutton descendant can help!