Anne --

Thank you. I had never thought about this, and I am ashamed to admit  
that. If the issue is descent  from Jefferson — which of course it  
only partially is — than all claiming such should, in the absence of  
documentation, submit to being tested. The reward would be  
certification, the penalty would be to revise a narrative you felt  
strongly enough about to claim it. Seems fair to me. But of much  
greater interest, to me at least, is to take the mouth swab and send  
it to Brian Sykes' lab in Oxford, England and, for a couple of  
hundred dollars, you can find out which original human you descend  
from. Pretty cool.

-- Stephan


On 5 May 2008, at 00:17, Anne Pemberton wrote:

> And, I will make one parting remark before I close down for the  
> night. How come none of the Jefferson descendents have been asked  
> to prove their descendency via DNA tests? According to Lanier,  
> there are a number of people who say they are descendents, but  
> there are no official documents to say so. Is there a double  
> standard involved here?


______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html