>>Maybe there should be a list of required reading before being allowed to
comment on this subject
>May I please suggest the several books reviewed on The Thomas Jefferson
Heritage Society web page, www.tjheritage.org. 


Given that this listserv focuses on genealogy, it is appropriate also to
suggest the one source in which the genealogical and historical evidence is
analyzed by today's leading arbiters of genealogical standards--i.e.,
 
*Jefferson-Hemings: A Special Issue of the _National Genealogical Society
Quarterly_, NGSQ 89 (September 2001). Contents:

"Sally Hemings's Children: A Genealogical Analysis of the Evidence" ---
Helen F. M. Leary, CG, CGL, FNGS, FASG (a four-term president of the Board
for Certification of Genealogists)

"'The Scholars Commission' Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Matter: An
Evaluation by Genealogical Standards" --- Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL,
FASG (and current editor of the _NGS Quarterly_, who was at that time
president of the Board for Certification)

"Can the 'Character Defense' Survive? Measuring Polar Positions in the
Jefferson-Hemings Controversy by the Standards of History" --- Joshua D.
Rothman, Ph.D.

This issue is available in most academic libraries, as well as large city
libraries--or through NGS's copying service. It is also germane to note that
while leading historical journals specifically exclude genealogical journals
from their annual or quarterly compilations of "recent scholarship," this
issue of NGSQ was carried by both the Journal of American History and the
Journal of Southern History. JSH, in fact, cited this issue as its first
entry for scholarly periodical materials published in 2001.


Leary and Jones, of course, are guiding forces within the genealogical
community. Professor Rothman, a historian, is one of today's leading
specialists on black-white relations in the Old South.

Among other critical assessments (based on original historical records, not
"oral history") is considerable new evidence presented by Leary that
conclusively demonstrates Tom Woodson was *not* Sally Hemings son. Indeed,
no historical record could be found which makes this assertion. Like much
so-called "tradition" that genealogists and historians now have to deal
with, that claim did not surface until the 20th century; and it remains
unsupported even in current books published by the Woodsons.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
(Disclaimer: Editor, _NGS Quarterly_, 1987-2002, and editor of the cited
special issue)