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Story summary
- Smithsonian Institution confirmed Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’s children using DNA evidence.
- Richard Kurin led the 15-year project that sequenced Jefferson’s genome from death-bed hair.
- Scientists compared Jefferson’s genome with DNA from 13 living descendants of Jefferson and Hemings.
- Simulations showed odds Jefferson was not Madison or Eston Hemings’s father were under 1 in 1,000.
- David Miller, sixth-generation Jefferson descendant, welcomed the results and said they grant his family recognition.