The Ancestry of Alexander Hamilton –
DNA Investigation
There are now several confirmed descendants of Alexander Hamilton who have participated in the DNA study. See results of Group D for a brief discussion of Alexander.
A comprehensive new biography of our founding father, Alexander Hamilton, written by Ron Chernow, an award winning biographer, was published in 2004. As previous biographers have noted, and as Mr. Chernow has also concluded, there has never been conclusive proof that Alexander’s biological father was indeed a Hamilton although considerable circumstantial evidence suggests that he was. The goal of the current investigation is to remove this ambiguity using the recently developed DNA techniques (see http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/a/gah4/HamDNA/H2.html for a general description of the techniques).
Alexander’s parents were apparently never married but, at the time of his birth, his mother was living with James Hamilton, a well documented descendant of the aristocratic Hamilton line that starts with Walter Fitzgilbert in the 13th century. Thus, to prove (or disprove) that Alexander is the son of James Hamilton one needs to compare the results obtained from a DNA sample donated by a male descendant of Alexander Hamilton with the results obtained from a DNA sample donated by a male descendant of an ancestor of James Hamilton, the presumed father of Alexander. Since it is the DNA from the Y-chromosome that is being analyzed, and the Y-chromosome is passed down only from father to son, in each case the donor must be a male that is descended along a completely male line from the ancestor. If the DNA markers from the sample donated by Alexander’s descendant have the same or similar values as those from a sample donated by a descendant of an ancestor of his presumed father James, then it would indicate that Alexander Hamilton is indeed a Hamilton.
In order to carry out this investigation we thus need two groups of participants:
- individuals who are well documented descendants along an all male line of Alexander Hamilton himself, and
- individuals who are well documented descendants along an all male line of one or more ancestors of Alexander’s presumed father James Hamilton.
Since the ancestry of James Hamilton back to Walter Fitzgilbert is known, virtually any well authenticated descendant of Walter Fitzgilbert along an all male line would be suitable for the second group. To ensure that the results can be duplicated and that there are no so-called “non-paternal” events in any of the lines, two to five participants in each of the above groups would be ideal.