Talk:Monticello Association

Sally Hemings
I'm surprised why Sally Hemings's decendants are not mentioned on this page. I suppose this is kind of a "all white" club. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.87.19.210 (talk) 19:08, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
 * The page doesn't mention whether they're included or excluded. Why don't you contact them to find out? DS (talk) 19:15, 28 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Material has been added about the Hemings-Jefferson descendants and the controversy over their inclusion as members.  The Association voted in 2002 to exclude the Hemings descendants until "more definitive evidence" (such as Thomas Jefferson's own DNA, but they prohibit disturbing his grave) is found.  Some Association members and Hemings descendants have gone on to create their own reunions and are helping heal the legacy of slavery.- Parkwells (talk) 17:44, 1 March 2011 (UTC)Parkwells (talk) 14:10, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Just to be clear--we haven't prohibited getting a DNA sample from Jefferson's own grave, but that would be fruitless even if usable DNA could be obtained after all these years (and that's a real question). But all that would show is that Thomas Jefferson has the same Y chromosome as the other two dozen Jefferson males who were alive at the same time as Thomas, any one of which could have been the father of Eston Hemings and / or any of the other Hemings children. The Y chromosome testing is inherently imprecise--it is great at excluding matches (like the Hemings / Woodson family, which after repeated tests showed no match with a Jefferson family Y chromosome despite their alleged strong oral history that they are descendants of Thomas Jefferson, which they cannot be scientifically). For more information about Y chromosome testing and Thomas Jefferson, see--http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/true/primer.html

Frankly this Wikipedia "information" about Sally Hemings is slanted wholly in the direction of the Hemings family, and needs substantial editing. In the historic 2002 vote of The Monticello Association, only 5 family members out of 72 (less that 7%) voted to include the Hemings family into The Monticello Association. Unfortunately this discussion in Wikipedia on The Monticello Association represents the views of only a very tiny minority of our members. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeffersonadmirer (talk • contribs) 17:30, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Exactly right. Since only Eston has the genetic marker of a Jefferson male, it is impossible for the others to be descended from a Jefferson male. And as for Eston, any of three Jefferson males were available to father him, and the best candidate for that is Randal, not Thomas. The Hemmings portion of this article is simply outrageous in its bias and prejudice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.91.70.120 (talk) 19:01, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I have no specific opinion on the legitimacy of the claim, but I feel compelled to point out that both the number 5 and number 72 above that were given for numbers of "family members" presumably do not include any of the descendants of Hemings, who I suspect were not invited to participate in that vote. —BarrelProof (talk) 05:22, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

The vast majority of historians and notable genealogists, as well as the Smithsonian Institute and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation accept that the scientific as well as other temporal evidence demonstrates very strongly that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children. You folks at the Monticello Association who cannot accept this, are showing a very ugly side of human disposition: snobbishness, stubbornness and willful stupidity. It's not very becoming for having descended from Thomas Jefferson. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.55.76.132 (talk) 09:28, 16 November 2015 (UTC) Correct, it is a continuation of the same denial of recognition that the association has done since the very beginning. As various association have stated, even if there were DNA evidence from TJ's remains, that would still be deemed insufficient for them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:192:8800:3780:59D:B9E5:DCF6:AF08 (talk) 13:32, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

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