0
DNA Test Uncover African Ancestry Surprising Connection to Thomas Jefferson
http://spittoon.23andme.com/2012/03/...mas-jefferson/DNA Test Uncover African Ancestry Suprising Connection to Thomas Jefferson
by: Cece Moore
You never know what a DNA test might reveal!
A few months ago, spurred on by my interest in genetic genealogy, my sister Erin decided to order a DNA test from 23andMe for my brother-in-law John Huffer. Since John has never known his father, we didn’t really know what his results would show. His mother’s family has a strong oral tradition of Native American ancestry, so we expected some mixed ancestry. However, what we found was unexpected.
His Ancestry Painting, in the image below, revealed that he has five percent African ancestry. 23andMe’s Ancestry Painting examines the 22 pairs of chromosomes one segment at a time and determines for each stretch whether it was most likely inherited from ancestors in Africa, Europe or Asia and “paints” the segments based on that different ancestry.
I had never investigated John’s family tree before, but my curiosity was piqued. Fairly quickly it became obvious that his was no run-of-the-mill genealogy. John’s mother’s line traces straight back to Madison Hemings. That name may be familiar to you. Madison Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings, a mixed race slave of Thomas Jefferson, our third president and author of the Declaration of Independence. My genealogy research clearly showed that Thomas Jefferson and Sally are John’s fourth great-grandparents!*
John has always especially admired Thomas Jefferson above all other historical figures and felt a special affinity to Monticello when he first visited there ten years ago, although he had absolutely no idea of his familial connection. When I first relayed my findings to John and my sister, they were, understandably, shocked. Once they started browsing the Internet in search of more information, they came across a very familiar photo on one of the websites about Monticello. An original of this very photo had hung in John’s house growing up. Further investigation shows that his mother had at least a vague knowledge of her family’s relationship to Thomas Jefferson and/or Sally Hemings, but did not share it with her children.
Since John had never had any relationship with his father’s family and had very little contact with his mother’s side after a family dispute, he says it was as if they “had no history”. Erin relates, “It’s been fun for John to finally have a legacy of some sort, not to mention one as interesting as this,” and goes on to say that this discovery has finally given John and his siblings “a sense of who they are and where they came from.” John’s young nephew Joshua tells me that learning about his illustrious roots has inspired him to strive to make more of his life and given him the confidence that he can achieve anything he desires.
I am so happy for John, once a fatherless little boy, who can now take comfort and pleasure in the knowledge that he is directly descended from one of the founding fathers of our country! During his most recent visit to Monticello, he couldn’t help but wonder if his deep love of Paris is simply a coincidence or caused by the same unknown spark that made Thomas Jefferson fall in love with it so long ago. Or, if his interest in the art of brewing beer could have come from his forebearers, whom he learned on his visit were expert brewers at Monticello. It is wonderful for John and his family to finally have these types of questions about their ancestry to ponder; questions that most of us take for granted.
DNA testing has come full circle for genetic genealogy with John’s story. It is fitting that one of the very first public uses of DNA for genealogical purposes was the Y-DNA test in 1998 that originally addressed the controversy surrounding the paternity of Sally Hemings’ children. Today, more than a decade later, the simple decision to test with 23andMe is what led John to make this illuminating discovery about his roots.
There have been a number of interesting “coincidences” in regard to the Huffers and Monticello that make one ponder on genetic memory. When John and my sister first visited Monticello on an anniversary trip ten years ago, they loved it so much that they decided to go back the very next year with their daughter Courtney.
Although some Jefferson researchers had disputed the validity of the claims that Sally’s children were fathered by Thomas Jefferson, most of these doubts were put to rest after a 1998 Y-DNA test on Sally’s son Eston’s direct male line descendants proved that they carry the Y chromosome of Thomas Jefferson’s male line. Although Madison has no living direct line male descendants who could have their Y-Chromosome DNA tested to further support this claim, it is now widely accepted that Thomas Jefferson fathered all of Sally’s children.
This is supported by oral histories of Sally’s descendants and analysis of the couple’s relationship and time spent together. Annette Gordon-Reed provides a detailed look at this evidence in her exhaustive study and Pulitzer Prize winning book, “The Hemingses of Monticello”. The official Jefferson Monticello website also addresses this issue. John’s discovery has sparked my interest in this fascinating subject. As a result, I am spearheading an autosomal DNA project on the descendants of Sally Hemings. Although it is now generally recognized that Thomas Jefferson fathered all of Sally Hemings’ children, it has been impossible to determine with certainty. The introduction of autosomal DNA testing has changed this. Through autosomal DNA testing of specific individuals, I hope to be able to demonstrate that the descendants of Sally Hemings share blocks of DNA with Jefferson’s “legitimate” descendants.
If it is not possible to procure DNA from any of these known descendants, I will seek DNA from descendants of individuals one step further back in Thomas Jefferson’s pedigree in an attempt to show that Sally’s descendants possess DNA from Jefferson’s ancestral lines. Since autosomal DNA undergoes random recombination with each successive generation, it will be necessary to test the oldest living descendants of these lines. DNA is the perfect tool for this because it does not harbor any prejudice or predetermined notions. Anyone who fits these parameters should contact me at yourgeneticgenealogist@gmail.com.
ancestry painting of John
jpg image hosting
image hosting jpg
jpg image hosting
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by rashka
United States
Bookmarks