-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of S. Corneliussen
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 


> 7.  The father of one of her children was descended
>  from Thomas Jefferson's paternal grandfather--that
> is to say, we can narrow the list of possible fathers
>  for this child to Thomas Jefferson, his paternal uncles,
>  and his paternal cousins

Yes to all before the sentence dash, but what follows the sentence dash 
appears to exclude the possibility of paternity by some unknown carrier of 
the DNA marker within the enslaved population. We know that the DNA marker 
crossed the race line. We do not know whether it crossed the race line in a 
generation earlier than the one that produced Eston Hemings. Now, this may 
well be an outlandish possibility in terms of the historical evidence. But 
because the DNA evidence says nothing whatsoever about it, the circle of 
paternity candidates must actually -- whenever the context is what the DNA 
did and did not prove -- be defined as wider than the circle of males in the

known, acknowledged, extended Jefferson family. As a matter of DNA science, 
we do not know the radius of the circle of paternity candidates.

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