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DNA evidence confirms Jefferson fathered Hemings’s children

By Drooid · Sep 24, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Smithsonian DNA Confirms

U.S. Smithsonian scientists announced DNA evidence proves Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’s children.
Researchers sequenced DNA from a July 4, 1826 hair lock identified as Jefferson’s.
Analysis indicated less than one in a thousand chance Jefferson was not Madison and Eston’s father.
Historian Leigh Fought called the DNA results “the lock” that closes the centuries-old paternity case.

History

Administration Bars History

The administration announced plans to bar “History by a Hair” from all federal archives.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, foreword author, will step down at year’s end.
UC Santa Cruz paleo-geneticists created a method to sequence DNA from rootless hair, later used in criminal investigations.
Clara Lee Nutt, a fifth-generation Hemings descendant, says DNA proof lets her speak openly about her ancestry.

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Smithsonian DNA Confirms

U.S. Smithsonian scientists announced DNA evidence proves Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’s children.
Researchers sequenced DNA from a July 4, 1826 hair lock identified as Jefferson’s.
Analysis indicated less than one in a thousand chance Jefferson was not Madison and Eston’s father.
Historian Leigh Fought called the DNA results “the lock” that closes the centuries-old paternity case.

1 / 2