Very Well Said.  Thanks for the insite

------Original Message------
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: April 18, 2001 1:20:46 PM GMT
Subject: Resolution of Jefferson DNA


VA list:

    As a geneticist by vocation and a genealogist by avocation, I have
followed the comments on the Jefferson-Hemings issue with no little interest.
    The DNA used in the case was extracted from a portion of the Y chromosome
of a living Jefferson male collateral descendant, and in the absence of
mutation is identical to that of Thomas Jefferson, his brother, father,
paternal uncles, paternal cousins, and all other males in the Jefferson
lineage, past and present.  Unlike more sophisticated tests
("fingerprinting"), the limited resolution of this particular test was
designed only to exclude all Jefferson males as the potential fathers of
certain of Sally's children, and can NOT be used to prove paternity with
certainty.  Interestingly, it excluded all Jefferson males from parentage of
certain of Sally's children, but not others.
    This lack of exclusion means only that Thomas Jefferson, among other male
relatives, is a paternity candidate, not a proven father.  It is unfortunate
that the editors of Nature, a highly respected scientific journal, clouded
the issue by changing the title of the original manuscript to words that in
effect implicated a single male, Thomas Jefferson, to a greater degree than
warranted by the test used.
    The most recent scholarly report is one of several now available that
seek to exclude (or include) Thomas Jefferson on the basis of other
circumstances such as motive and opportunity.  The historians involved, if
they do their job prudently, should be able to provide evidence that
increases or decreases the probability of Thomas Jefferson's involvement.
    The Jefferson Y-DNA test has certainly succeeded as a heuristic device,
and has reawakened Americans to the likelihood of
"interbreeding"/miscegenation during colonial times.  Unfortunately, it has
also aroused the same prejudices and emotions that so often accompany such
volatile issues.
    Perhaps we would do well to consider that one of the lessons of the
recent Human Genome Project report is that all humans share 99.9% of their
DNA, and that this high degree of similarity among all humans is much more
important than our differences.

Larry in Long Beach

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