Mr. Browning (or is it Dr. Browning?  sorry!), I'm truly confused by  
your comment here.

You quote the reporter as saying the following:

1.  Genetic evidence has linked Hemings's line to Jefferson's family.
2.  Documentary evidence exists.
3.  Historians say that such evidence points to Jefferson as the father.
4.  There are still some who deny the link.

Which of these statements do you contest?  It seems to me that every  
one of them can be substantiated abundantly in postings on this list,  
from advocates on all sides of the question at hand, within the past  
month.  Some of the historians in question have even participated in  
that discussion, or have recently published books to the same effect.

If one wishes to continue to debate Jefferson and Hemings, surely one  
can come up with something more salient than a bald factual statement  
from a reporter -- a welcome exception, moreover, to the general  
tendency of reporters to misreport complicated historical issues.

I say this, for what it's worth, as someone who finds this  
individual's claim of Madison descent dubious in the extreme.  (I  
cannot find the Times-Dispatch article, but am familiar with the claim  
as recorded in other recent news reports.)  The (apparent) entire  
absence of supporting contemporary evidence -- i.e., evidence from  
Madison's own time -- renders it most likely to be, in my view, what  
several people on this list would have us suppose the Hemings- 
Jefferson link to be: a historically baseless family story founded in  
misdirected ancestral pride.

The same goes for the story about a supposed George Washington slave  
liaison that Henry Wiencek has perhaps too dutifully (sorry, Henry)  
laid forth in An Imperfect God: the contemporaneous, or even more  
recent historical, supporting evidence that might lead a reasonable  
researcher to accept the tale's essential veracity simply does not  
exist.

The Jefferson-Hemings link is of an entirely different order, and it  
is frankly an insult to the professional integrity of historians to  
pretend otherwise.

Sorry to be peevish.  My peeve is not directed at you, Mr. Browning,  
but my puzzlement is.

-- Jurretta Heckscher



On Oct 20, 2008, at 4:46 PM, Lyle E. Browning wrote:

> Today's Richmond Times Dispatch had an article about a Massachusetts  
> pediatrician who claims via oral history to be descended from James  
> Madison's father and from James Madison. Difficulties in getting  
> genetic testing done and by whom, etc. are preventing forward motion  
> at the moment.
>
> The Washington Post's Jonathan Mummolo wrote the article and in it  
> was a paragraph: "Despite genetic evidence that has linked Hemmings'  
> line to Jefferson's family, and documentary evidence that historians  
> say points to Jefferson as the father, there are still some who deny  
> the link."
>
> The first part about linking SH's line to Jefferson's family is true  
> via DNA. The second part about documentary evidence is highly  
> contested and cannot be ascertained with certainty. The third part  
> goes completely off the rails by tarring those who might deny that  
> TJ was the father.
>
> Of such things is disinformation promulgated. The first step is to  
> make a statement that is true. Then you warp it one degree as the  
> second part did, and then the third part is introduced as the new  
> "truth" and we're off to the Goebbels finals with a flourish.
>
> Let the fireworks begin.
>
> Lyle Browning
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