Mr Corneliussen is absolutely correct that it is "possible" that a slave inherited from Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's father) could have carried the Jefferson DNA from past Jefferson males. This slave's name was "SANDY", a name that denotes reddish hair, and this man could have fathered a male heir who "may" have been a father to some of Sally's children. Please remember that only ONE Hemings family member was DNA tested. Herb Barger Jefferson Family Historian -----Original Message----- From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven T. Corneliussen Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 7:32 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] New Presidential Descendant Claimant And please forgive me if I'm misinterpreting something related from Kevin Hardwick's Oct. 12 revised list of the things that we can "say about Sally Hemings that no one is likely to dispute." Item 5 on that revised list says that the "father of one of [SH's] children -- Eston Hemings -- was descended from Thomas Jefferson's paternal grandfather; that is to say, we can narrow the list of possible fathers for this child to Thomas Jefferson, TJ's brother, his paternal uncles, and his paternal cousins." It seems to me that, at a minimum, this phrasing fails to make completely clear what is known about the radius of the circle of paternity candidates. That complete clarity is important because many participants in Hemings-TJ discussions, and almost all participants in the media, presume that the circle includes only Jeffersons who were routinely acknowledged at the time as members of the extended Jefferson family. In my view it's important to stipulate specifically the possibility of paternity by some unknown carrier of the Jefferson DNA marker within the enslaved population. We know that the DNA marker crossed the race line. We do not know whether it crossed the race line in a generation earlier than the one that produced Eston Hemings. Now, this may well be an outlandish possibility in terms of the historical evidence. But because the DNA evidence says nothing whatsoever about it, as a matter of DNA science the circle of paternity candidates must actually be defined as wider than the circle of males in the known, acknowledged, extended Jefferson family. As a matter of DNA science, we simply do not know the radius of the circle of paternity candidates. (And yes, here I have repeated myself nearly verbatim, but in this case it seemed necessary.) ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html