# Jefferson's Hair Links to Hemings Children

> Smithsonian uses Jefferson's hair DNA to confirm he fathered Sally Hemings' children.
- Title: Jefferson's Hair Links to Hemings Children · Seattletimes
- Summary: Smithsonian uses Jefferson's hair DNA to confirm he fathered Sally Hemings' children. Smithsonian's DNA analysis of Thomas Jefferson's hair matches Hemings…
- Keywords: thomas jefferson, sally hemings, smithsonian, dna, jefferson hair, hemings children, monticello, nuclear dna, genetic evidence, historical research, jefferson descendants, sally hemings descendants
- Source: Seattletimes — https://seattletimes.com/entertainment/two-centuries-on-smithsonian-connects-jeffersons-hair-to-hemings-children
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: thomas jefferson, sally hemings, smithsonian, dna, jefferson hair, hemings children, monticello, nuclear dna, genetic evidence, historical research, jefferson descendants, sally hemings descendants
## Jefferson and Hemings' Parentage Question
For over 200 years, the question has nagged at the edges of American history: Did Thomas Jefferson father children by Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved?
## Smithsonian's DNA Evidence
The Smithsonian Institution offers what it says is the most definitive evidence yet, based on Thomas Jefferson’s genome sequenced from samples culled from a few strands of his hair.
## Richard Kurin Leads Research
Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian scholar who led the effort, describes how a team used cutting-edge techniques to extract and sequence Jefferson’s DNA and compared it with DNA samples from 13 living Hemings and Jefferson family descendants.
## 15-Year Detective Story
It’s a 15-year detective story involving archaeologists, genealogists, molecular geneticists and historians, stretching across multiple changes in Smithsonian leadership.
## Kurin Calls It 'Capstone'
Kurin, in a video interview last week, called it a 'capstone' to decades of previous research and 'extraordinary proof' that Jefferson fathered Hemings’ children.

> capstone
## Kurin on Certainty
Kurin acknowledged that other people may have other ideas, but said it’s 'compelling' and 'very clear' that Jefferson fathered Hemings’ children.
## Book 'History by a Hair'
The book 'History by a Hair', publishing Tuesday by Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, arrives with endorsements from prominent scholars.

> history by a hair
## Smithsonian in Trump Standoff
The Smithsonian is in a standoff with the Trump administration, which has accused the institution and its secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, of promoting a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' that dishonors the nation’s founders.

> divisive, race-centered ideology
## Bunch Announces Departure
Bunch, who has led the Smithsonian since 2019, announced he would depart by the end of the year.
## Administration Plans Signs
The administration outlined plans to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History warning visitors of what it claims is inaccurate history.
## Research Rollout Adjusted
The Smithsonian adjusted the rollout of its research, moving the event announcing the findings from the American history museum to a less prominent location and limiting it to descendants.
## Online Lecture Canceled
An online public lecture by Kurin through the institution’s educational arm set for the next day was canceled.
## Kurin on Duty
Kurin said this is a topic of interest to the American people and that he didn’t invent the question, which goes back to Hamilton and Jefferson and Adams.
## Bunch Foreword
In a foreword to the book, Bunch links the research to the museum’s truth-seeking mission, saying it helps resolve an issue that had divided us since the time of our national founding.
## Historical Claim Origin
The claim that Jefferson fathered children by Hemings goes back to the early days of the Republic, when Jefferson’s political opponents lobbed the scandalous charge that he had an enslaved Black mistress at Monticello.
## Family Accounts
Jefferson’s paternity was recorded in generations of Hemings family accounts, including an 1873 oral history given by her son Madison, who said Hemings became Jefferson’s 'concubine,' bearing five children by him.

> concubine
## Discounted by White Historians
Deep into the 20th century, the notion was discounted by most mainstream, white historians, who saw it as out of keeping with Jefferson’s character.
## 1990s Sea Change
The 1990s saw a sea change, driven in part by a 1997 study by Annette Gordon-Reed, who analyzed the wealth of evidence in support of the claim and the ways it had been systematically discounted by white scholars.
## 1998 DNA Study
In 1998, pathologist Eugene Foster published a DNA study in the journal Nature indicating that Hemings’ son Eston was the son of a Jefferson male.
## 2000 Report
In a 2000 report, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation concluded that multiple strands of evidence suggested a 'high probability' that Jefferson was the father of Hemings’ son Eston and 'most likely' the father of her other children.

> high probability
## Key takeaway

Smithsonian's DNA analysis of Thomas Jefferson's hair matches Hemings descendants, confirming he fathered her children.