While I do not respond to all posters regarding the Jefferson-Hemings
controversy I do find that Mr. Wiencek's remarks are worthy of reply. He
is doing much serious research for his new Jefferson book and has
actually "researched" the matter. He has studied the claims of Madison
Hemings in the Pike County article and has found them to be lacking in
truth on many of his statements. This was the same article that was
"greatly" relied upon for the Monticello Research Study by an oral
family history specialist assigned the task of Chairperson by Dr. Daniel
Jordan, Monticello President. See one of my two original citing in my
original posting on this specific point of view.       

I would highly suggest to Mr. Wiencek and other serious amateur or
professional genealogists to closely consider the two cited new
analysis. If you test a known person who has "always" claimed to have
Jefferson DNA, in most cases if the claims were true, THEN you will get
a match with the Jefferson DNA donors who descend from Thomas
Jefferson's uncle, Field Jefferson (the source of all tested Jefferson
DNA). This is NOT true disinterested research.........the results of a
match is expected and there was a match. But in reality, the DNA of
Field Jefferson's 5 descendants was being tested against the Jefferson
DNA of John Weeks Jefferson, an Eston Hemings descendant who had always
claimed descend from "an uncle Jefferson, NOT Thomas." Sure, the DNA
would definitely match, SO the test was predestined beforehand and
should have NEVER went forward for a test. 

Mr. Wiencek and any other subscriber comments on these two points are
welcome. I agree with Mr. Wiencek's suggestion for any that wish for no
discussion of this vital topic to just "click it." Our children's future
history textbooks and our country's history is being tainted by these
false and biased articles and books.         

Herb Barger
Jefferson Family Historian 
-----Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-ROOTS] Jefferson, Hemings, & DNA

I do hope the esteemed members of this list are NOT tired of the Hemings

story because I am writing a book about Jefferson and his slaves, which
will 
have a section on the Hemings family. I have done a lot of new research
and 
made some fresh discoveries about Monticello.

Let me try to summarize the story quickly, in a "non-partisan" fashion;
and 
those who are not interested can just hit "Delete" right now.

Thomas Jefferson was alleged to be the father of Sally Hemings's
children in 
newspaper articles  in 1802 by the political journalist James Callender
(who 
had a grudge against Jefferson), in oral histories, in letters, and a
diary 
entry. All this evidence has been subject to dispute for two hundred
years 
and continues to be debated.

In the 1850s, Jefferson's grandchildren Ellen Randolph Coolidge and
Thomas 
Jefferson Randolph admitted privately that Hemings had children who
closely 
resembled Thomas Jefferson, but they said the reason for the resemblance
was 
that the children had been fathered by Jefferson's nephews Peter and
Samuel 
Carr, the sons of his sister.

In the late 1990s Dr. Eugene Foster, with the invaluable aid of Herbert 
Barger, obtained blood samples for DNA testing from male-line
descendants of 
Field Jefferson, an uncle of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson himself
had 
no surviving legitimate male children. On the Hemings side, Foster
obtained 
samples from a male-line descendant of Eston Hemings, the youngest son
of 
Sally Hemings.  These two lines of DNA matched, proving that Eston
Hemings 
had been fathered not by a Carr but by some male of the Jefferson
family. 
 After analyzing the historical evidence, Monticello's scholars
concluded 
that Thomas Jefferson was the most likely member of his family to have 
fathered Eston and that Thomas Jefferson was very likely the father of
all 
of Sally Hemings's children.

That would seem to be the end of the story, except that a number of 
researchers, notably including Herbert Barger, Cynthia Burton, and
Rebecca 
McMurry, raise the possibility that Eston's father could have been TJ's 
brother Randolph or some other Jefferson. The Monticello scholars, and 
others, think this is unlikely, but the debate continues.

Herbert Barger has proposed trying to get a DNA sample from the remains
of 
another Hemings who is buried in Kansas, the son of Madison Hemings. 
 Madison was Eston's brother.  The living Hemings descendants have not 
granted permission.

According to Jefferson's plantation records, Sally Hemings had one
daughter 
and three sons who survived (Harriet and Beverly, who were allowed to
leave 
Monticello in 1822; and Madison and Eston, who were freed in Jefferson's

will).  But according to oral history and other documentation, there was

another son--the first-born "President Tom," made notorious by James 
Callender's articles. According to an oral history, this Tom was whisked

away from Monticello in the wake of the scandalous press reports and
given a 
new identity as Thomas Woodson.

Today's Woodson family is descended from an actual Thomas Woodson, who
died 
in 1879 in Ohio and whose birth date is not known.  His descendants have

long claimed that he was the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. 
 They claim he was conceived when Jefferson and Hemings were in France
and 
was born at Monticello in 1790.  Nothing in Jefferson's Farm Book or
other 
Monticello records verifies Woodson's birth or presence at Monticello. 
Foster's test showed no match between the DNA of Jefferson's family and 
Woodson's descendants.

In the interest of brevity I have left out a lot, but I think that's a
fair 
gist of the story in a very small nutshell.

Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville