New Historical Matches Could Connect You to Colonial Era Mexico

This month, 23andMe is adding eight new historical individuals from the colonial port of Campeche to Historical Matches^SM, a 23andMe+ Premium^TM  membership feature. 

UNESCO World Heritage Site

The colonial port of Campeche, located in what is now the southeastern part of Mexico, was founded in 1540 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo ‘the Younger’. The port is near the site of the old Maya village of ‘Ah Kin Pech,’ from which it derives its name. 

After its founding, Campeche quickly grew into one of the main ports of the Spanish Empire in Mexico, and it remained one of the region’s most prominent ports until the early 19^th century. In 2000, the United Nations declared the city of Campeche a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognizing its historic town center as a key landmark of early Hispanic society in the Americas. 

Within a few years of the founding of the port, an early colonial parish church was erected to serve the town’s inhabitants, including people of Spanish, Indigenous American, and African ancestry. The church continued to serve the community until 1680, when it was replaced by Campeche Cathedral, which is still in use. In 2000, Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia excavated the colonial-era parish church, discovering burials of 129 individuals.

Historical Individuals

In 2022, scientists sequenced the genomes of ten individuals who lived during the 16th–17th centuries and were buried in the cemetery of the Campeche parish church. Their goal was to learn about the lives of Campeche’s inhabitants and the social divisions that may have existed in the town’s earliest years. 

Of the ten individuals they sequenced, eight had entirely Indigenous American ancestry (most similar to contemporary Maya individuals from southern Mexico), one had European ancestry, and one had African ancestry. Interestingly, none of these individuals had any evidence of mixed ancestry, suggesting that despite living nearby under colonial rule, strong social divisions may have endured at Campeche across generations during this early colonial period.

Learn More

You can find out if you share a genetic connection to eight of the individuals from this study and learn more about colonial Campeche through 23andMe’s Historical Matches feature, which is available to all 23andMe+ Premium^TM  members.