Sam Treynor makes an excellent point, and one well worth re-emphasizing.
I did NOT intend to exclude the possibility that Thomas Jefferson had brothers, paternal uncles, or paternal cousins who were slaves, and who might have been the father of Sally Hemings' children.
This is yet another reason why, in my view, the DNA evidence is inconclusive. We simply do not, and indeed can not, know for sure the full extent of Jefferson's paternal family.
This kind of uncertainty exists for most ante-bellum Southern genealogies. Miscegenation was so prevalent in the South that there existed at any given time a substantial number of unacknowledged kinship connections.
All best,
Kevin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:44:48 -0500
>From: Sam Treynor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: What we know about Sally Hemings
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>-----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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Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University
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