200-year-old mystery solved: President Jefferson’s hair reveals the truth...

Modern DNA analysis of strands of Thomas Jefferson’s hair has produced extraordinarily strong evidence that the third president of the United States was the father of children born to Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman.

TodayPress TV reports, citing the New York Post, that researchers at the Smithsonian Institution compared genetic material obtained from several strands of Jefferson’s hair with DNA samples from 13 living people believed to be descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. The study, which lasted approximately 15 years, involved archaeologists, genealogy experts, molecular geneticists and historians.

Rumors that Jefferson was the father of Hemings’ children had circulated since the early 19th century. Researchers now believe they have obtained compelling genetic evidence confirming the connection.

Richard Kurin, a Smithsonian Institution researcher who led the project, said that differing views on the matter may exist and that the institution may not have an official position on the issue. However, according to him, the evidence obtained is compelling and the results are quite clear.

The research began in 2011, when Kurin was making a documentary about Jefferson’s personal Bible. While searching for traces of the president’s blood on the pages of the book, researchers discovered three strands of hair. However, it was later determined that the hair did not match a sample from one of Jefferson’s maternal relatives.

Scientists subsequently obtained a lock of hair believed to have been cut from Jefferson’s head on his deathbed at his Monticello estate in 1826. This sample made it possible to determine the president’s complete genome.

Researchers also conducted 20,000 simulations to examine different paternity possibilities. Comparisons were made with Jefferson’s brother Randolph and Randolph’s sons. The results indicated that the probability of Jefferson not being the father of Hemings’ sons Madison and Eston was less than one in a thousand.

However, the study has also sparked controversy. Earlier this month, one of Hemings’ descendants, who provided a DNA sample in 2015, requested that his data be removed from the project. He objected to Kurin’s book being published before the relevant scientific paper appeared in a journal.

The Smithsonian Institution confirmed that the sample and the data associated with it had been destroyed. The analysis was subsequently repeated without that data.

Giymat Mahir