Jefferson & Hemings
Analyzing Thomas Jefferson’s Own DNA
If Thomas Jefferson’s own DNA could be analyzed, rather than the DNA from his relatives as was done in the 1998 Foster DNA Study (5 male line descendants of 2 sons of Field Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s paternal uncle), the paternity answer would be clear-cut and final: Thomas Jefferson either did or did not father children with Sally Hemings.
Locks of Thomas Jefferson’s hair have been preserved in at least 3 places: the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA; and Monticello, Charlottesville, VA. The Library of Congress has 3 locks, snipped at the request of Jefferson’s daughter, Martha Randolph, as he died. The hair’s provenance is strong: When it was donated to the library, she wrote on one envelope: “My dear father Thomas Jefferson”.
The Academy of Natural Sciences obtained its locks from a donation from a 19th century lawyer, Peter Arvell Browne, who had the eccentric but fortuitous hobby of collecting hair from famous people, including Napoleon, George Washington, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson. According to the Thomas Jefferson (Memorial) Foundation, Monticello has “15 samples of hair purported to be Thomas Jefferson’s, from various family provenances, though it is impossible for us to know if these are what they purport to be.” See Hair’s Breadth: Locks Could be Keys to Jefferson Mystery, Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Vol 10, Autumn 2010. Note that at least as to 2 of these locks, they were clipped from Jefferson’s head on 4 July 1826 by Mrs Cornelia Lee Burke, Gordon Trist Burke’s widow—”Mrs Burke’s gift was clipped from the old patriarch’s head sometime in the afternoon of the day of his death by Nicholas Philip Trist, who according to our research was the only member of the household to wield the scissors on this melancholy occasion.
This accession substantiates the fact that Jefferson’s hair as an older gentleman was ‘strawberry blond’”. See Report of the Curator, 1968, at p 11 (James A Bear Jr). Nicholas Philip Trist’s grandmother, Elizabeth House Trist, was an acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson. Trist studied law under Thomas Jefferson and served as Jefferson’s personal secretary in the 1820s and became an executor of his estate. Gordon Trist Burke is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson through his mother’s Trist line. If the current owners of this hair gave permission to test these locks, and if the hair yielded DNA, conclusive proof, or disproof, of a Jefferson-Hemings relationship would be possible.
Genomic Analyses of Hair from Ludwig van Beethoven
(see also attached PDF)
In the 24 April 2023 scientific article, Genomic Analyses of Hair from Ludwig van Beethoven, appearing in Current Biology, Volume 33, Issue 8, p 1431-47, researchers at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom along with scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany were able to recover DNA from rootless hair from Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), one of the world’s most influential and popular classical music composers.
Health problems significantly impacted his career as a composer and pianist, including progressive hearing loss, recurring gastrointestinal complaints, and liver disease. The authors conducted a genomic analysis of Beethoven in order to elucidate potential underlying genetic and infectious causes of his illnesses. They analyzed 8 independently sourced locks of hair attributed to Beethoven and sequenced Beethoven’s genome to 24-fold genomic coverage. Not only did they find that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition for liver disease, they also unexpectedly discovered the occurrence of an extra-pair paternity event in Ludwig van Beethoven’s patrilineal ancestry. Since Beethoven lived approximately at the same time as Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), if the DNA from rootless hair of Thomas Jefferson could be analyzed, the determination of a Jefferson Hemings relationship would be possible.
Why This Scientist Keeps Receiving Packages of Serial Killers Hair
Getting sufficient DNA out of a rootless hair has long been considered impossible. A scientist, better known for work with ancient fossils, has figured it out. It’s a game-changer for crime and surveillance. But recently Ed Green, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz known in the scientific community for his work for on the Neanderthan genome, has developed a technique that makes it possible to recover and sequence DNA from hair without its roots.
Hair’s Breadth: Locks could be Keys to Jefferson Mystery
Even though Thomas Jefferson (Memorial) Foundation relies on the DNA tests as “proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of Sally Hemings, there was no DNA of Thomas Jefferson. The DNA used in these tests came from the descendants of Field Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s uncle. It has been suggested that locks from Jefferson’s hair maybe a source of DNA. James Breig, in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, examines the possibilities of this technology.
2/29/2008
A Civil Action: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
by William G. Hyland, Jr. and William G. Hyland
Allegations that Thomas Jefferson had an affair and fathered at least one child with slave Sally Hemings have been discussed for two centuries. In this article, published by American Journal of Trial Advocacy, the authors summarize a “mock” trial defense of Jefferson, and conclude that the allegations are unproved by the greater weight of the evidence.
2007
Anatomy of a Mystery
The University of Virginia Magazine
In no other place is the presence of Thomas Jefferson more alive than the University he founded. Whether he fathered slave children with Sally Hemings is an issue that has divided the alumni community. In the Fall 2007 issue of The University of Virginia Magazine, writer Maura Singleton arranges the evidence in “Anatomy of a Mystery.”
4/12/2004
Biohistory Analysis Unearths Debate
Richmond Times Dispatch
The curious are applying DNA testing and related lab tools to the study of historical figures without guidelines specific to this kind of analysis–“Biohistory”. As medical technology reveals more about the intimate details of our lives, those who would uncover them grapple with increasingly complex ethical issues.
4/9/2004
Constructing Ethical Guidelines for Biohistory
Science
Should technologies of bioanalysis, such as DNA testing, be used to try to answer questions about historical figures? If so, what social, legal, and scientific standards should be used? Currently there are no professional guidelines specifically addressing biohistorical analysis. Often, investigators fail to pose an investigative question capable of resolution by genetic testing. For example, Eugene Foster’s 1998 comparative Y-chromosomal study of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was intended to establish whether Thomas Jefferson had fathered Sally Hemings’ children. Yet the study protocol was inappropriate for determining the paternity of Hemings’ children–the only possible conclusion was that some of Jefferson and Hemings male-line descendants had common relatives.
5/5/2003
Who’s Your Daddy?
Richmond Times-Dispatch
1/8/1999
Which Jefferson Was the Father?
Science
The authors of the original DNA report in Nature say the evidence for Thomas Jefferson’s paternity is less than conclusive. In responding to letters to Nature, the authors make it clear that the data establish only that Thomas Jefferson was one of several candidates for the paternity of Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings’ 5th child.
Genealogists look inside their cells for clues to their ancestors.
1/13/2003
Ownership and Identity
The Scientist
The drive to manipulate DNA has changed the economy and the law. Daniel J. Kevles examines the history of the use of DNA.
11/15/1998
Paternity Hype Visits Monticello
Washington Post
An Innocent Man
This article examines the widely held belief that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with his slave, Sally Hemings. It provides a history of the politically motivated allegation and presents evidence for an alternate paternity candidate. It discusses Jefferson’s health, the Foster 1998 DNA Study, the Jefferson Hemings Scholars Commission Report, Jefferson and Hemings in Paris, Madison Hemings, and Jefferson’s overseer Edmund Bacon. To request a higher resolution copy of this video, please go to lightandliberty.org.
Much of the original DNA coverage demonstrated a remarkable flight from careful and skeptical reporting. All too often the news stories, commentary, and analysis transformed an intriguing but inconclusive scientific finding into a dead certainty. Several journalists went on to turn the DNA results into some sort of referendum on the current state of race relations and presidential politics.
A Primer on Jefferson DNA
Frontline
“Primer on Jefferson DNA” was written by John Works and is featured prominently on Frontline’s website. Mr. Works is a direct lineal descendant of Thomas Jefferson, a former Monticello Association president, and a Monticello Association life member.
The DNA tests indicated that any one of two dozen Jeffersons , 8 of whom were within a day’s drive of Monticello, could have been the father of one of Sally Heming’s children, and there was nothing to indicate it was Thomas. The same Y-chromosome existed in Mr. Jefferson’s brother Randolph, who lived 20 miles from Monticello , and in 5 of Randolph ‘s sons, who were in their teens or 20s when Sally Hemings was having children.
The current members of The Monticello Association were acknowledged by Thomas Jefferson as his offspring (and by their subsequent offspring) as descendants of Thomas Jefferson so no acknowledged descendant of Thomas Jefferson need be tested for a DNA match under currently acknowledged paternity standards. If the acknowledged descendants of Thomas Jefferson submitted to DNA testing the test would be futile because the only genetic test would be of the Y-chromosome. The acknowledged descendants of Thomas Jefferson are all descended through Thomas Jefferson’s daughters, not the male line. Thus they would have the Y-chromosome from their male lines, not the same Y-chromosome as any Jefferson . Since all of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson’s daughters had Y-chromosomes from male lines other than the Jeffersons , nothing could be more futile than to test the acknowledged descendants of Thomas Jefferson.
If Thomas Jefferson were exhumed for Y chromosome DNA testing it would only confirm that he carried the same Y chromosome as the other 8 Jeffersons in question. The only way this would not be true is if Thomas Jefferson were illegitimate. Besides being futile, it is very unlikely that there would be usable DNA that could be tested after so many years.
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