Hi, all--

We've done some fairly extensive poking around in the past on this
question and agree with Prof. Jordan--it's nothing that can be
documented thus far.  One of my colleagues posits that "[i]t likely
started with the loose connection of the location of Madison and Eston
Hemings's post-Monticello residences, somewhere along West Main Street,
with the assumption that their mother would have been buried in close
proximity."  However, there's no evidence to substantiate that
assumption, and burial practices of the day may actually have made that
unlikely.

All my best,

--Eric
 
Eric D. M. Johnson
Library Services Coordinator
Jefferson Library, Monticello
P.O. Box 316
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone: (434) 984-7540 | Fax: (434) 984-7546
http://www.monticello.org/library/
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia 
> history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ervin 
> L. Jordan Jr.
> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 4:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Grave of Sally Hemmings
> 
> Urban legend--so far.
> Prof. Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. (Associate Professor) University 
> of Virginia Records Manager  & Research Archivist 
> Charlottesville, VA Member, Advisory Committee on 
> African-American Interpretation at Monticello