Anne,

Jefferson's Children: Do you not think that Shannon Lanier, Madison
descendant, author of the Jefferson's Children, visitor to my home for
1/2 day, wrote two pages of MY research, one of 8 Hemings cousins that
REFUSED to DNA check William Hemings, was a bit premature in claiming
that TJ was his ancestral grandfather. Where's the proof....surely not
the DNA of his ancestor, Madison. Certainly not that of Eston who NEVER
claimed a Thomas Jefferson connection, but DID claim descent from "a
Jefferson uncle", a reference to Randolph Jefferson, TJ's brother. 

Jon Kukla's book: Please go to Amazon to read my reviews of all the
books that fit the same vein, they all "bad mouth" TJ, many of the
authors, including Kukla, Crawford, and others spend time at the
Monticello Studies gathering material from the Monticello files that are
not completely correct, in my opinion. If you doubt this, check the
Scholars Commission Report. We are not ignorant of the changes at
Monticello of late in dropping "Memorial" from their foundation
title........WHO are they now memorializing??

I am aware of your Hemings connections and have nothing to have ill will
with the family except I have found nothing anywhere that proves they
are TJ's descendants. Truth and facts impress me......political
correctness does not. Your impression that I do not honor oral history
is confusing. Oral history of the Woodson family did not get us far did
it, yet it was the oldest of the oral claims? I "believe" the Eston
family oral beliefs........."UNCLE JEFFERSON." I don't believe Madison
(or rather Samuel Wetmore's version) of Madison's supposedly made
statements, including the one about Dolley Madison naming him at his
Monticello birth.........NOT factual! I am pretty well convinced that
just "one" misstatement in this newspaper article would satisfy Samuel
Wetmore's desire to place Mr. Jefferson's name in a "bad light.", so can
we believe anything in this article?     

The Census Report statement: I don't know who had access to the cited
census report, but can we all not "guess" it may have been anyone having
heard the spreading neighborhood stories of Madison's claims and took
into their own hands to "deface" the page of an official government
document by placing an unofficial and unproven remark there. The fact
that someone had access and did it does not make it a fact. Read the
opposing article in the Waverly Watchman, a few days after the Pike Co.
Wetmore article. Not very well complementary of the story or the people
involved.    

Herb,


I've seen your angelfire site before. I've finished reading Jefferson's 
Children, and apologize for mischaracterizing "your elders" as those 
described in the book about the unmannerly folks who claim to be
descendents 
of TJ. I will start on Jon Kukla's book this evening and have more to
say on 
the issue as I go through it.

As I've mentioned before, one of my nephews is a descendent of Madison 
Hemings, and he is definitely white as are his father and grandparents.
So, 
characterizing the descendents of Eston Hemings as white and Madison
Hemings 
as black is not up to your standards of accuracy;.

And, as a reminder, again on your standards of accuracy, your statement
that 
there is NOTHING to prove that TJ fathered children by Sally Hemings, is
not 
a true statement. Oral history stands as proof in the absence of
conflicting 
data. Oral history must be preserved - otherwise history falls to the 
wayside as the province of the privileged - ignoring the history and
stories 
of those who were not gifted with the opportunity to read and write.

BTW you still have not explained away the census document! Remenber in
your 
response that Madison was known for his honesty and integrity - perhaps 
because of his paternity (real or believed), so the probability of a lie

would besmirch the integrity of TJ as much as Madison's.

Anne


Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

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