https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-dna-study

Thomas Jefferson’s DNA Has Officially Proven That He Fathered Children With Sally Hemings


By Ella Spitz | Edited By John Kuroski
Published September 25, 2026

Updated September 26, 2026

While DNA analysis published in 1998 showed that Hemings' children were fathered by a Jefferson male, new research has used Thomas Jefferson's own genetic material for the first time ever to demonstrate that he was indeed that man.

Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president and main author of the Declaration of Independence, was an outspoken critic of slavery. However, he kept more than 600 enslaved people at his Virginia home and plantation, Monticello.

Though many Americans may be able to generally accept that Jefferson’s legacy contains multitudes, at least one sticking point has remained: Did Jefferson have children with an enslaved woman of his named Sally Hemings?

Many historians and researchers have long agreed that Jefferson was indeed the father of Sally Hemings’ children. And while it had been strongly suggested by DNA evidence back in 1998, it hadn’t been absolutely proven with Jefferson’s own DNA — until now.

After 15 years of research, spurred by the discovery of the first actionable sample of Jefferson’s DNA, Smithsonian scholar Richard Kurin and his collaborators confirmed that Sally Hemings’ living descendants share DNA with none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Inside The Relationship Between Thomas Jefferson And Sally Hemings

Before his wife Martha died in 1782, she and Thomas Jefferson had six children, but only two survived past early youth, Martha and Maria. Upon Martha’s death, Jefferson promised her that he would never remarry.

Soon afterward, however, rumors about Jefferson’s involvement with an enslaved woman at Monticello began circulating, and persisted into his presidency. He was primarily exposed by journalist James Callender, who published Jefferson’s deeds starting with a report in Virginia’s Richmond Recorder in 1802.

At the same time, Jefferson was being publicly criticized by abolitionists for the hypocrisy of keeping enslaved people while speaking out against slavery. This criticism only took a darker turn when his relationship with Hemings was revealed, especially due to its likely nonconsensual nature.

Hemings was, in fact, owned by Jefferson, having been the daughter of Jefferson’s father-in-law and the enslaved woman Elizabeth Hemings, and inherited by Jefferson after he married Martha. Jefferson also owned Hemings’ brother, James Hemings, along with other members of the family.

Jefferson himself kept no extant record of his connection to Sally Hemings, but did note that she had six children, four of whom lived past infancy: William Beverly in 1798, Harriet in 1801, Madison in 1805, and Eston in 1808.

Before his death in 1826, Jefferson had William Beverly and Harriet leave Monticello and he also freed Madison and Eston in his will. He never officially freed Sally Hemings herself.

How This Discovery Confirms Longstanding Claims About Thomas Jefferson Fathering Sally Hemings’ Children

The historical record has long made Jefferson’s paternity of Hemings’ children all but certain. The Monticello statement on the new research points to not only Callender’s reports, but also the 1873 account from Madison Hemings stating that he and his siblings were indeed Jefferson’s children.

In 1998, the first DNA research on the subject came out. Eugene Foster analyzed the Y chromosome passed down from fathers to sons, and found matches between male descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. However, some scholars still questioned the results, arguing that other male members of the Jefferson family could have fathered the children.

Still, in 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation concluded that “the best evidence available suggests the strong likelihood” that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings, and probably all six of Sally Hemings’ children listed in Jefferson’s records.

But this recent study led by Richard Kurin absolutely confirms Jefferson’s paternity via sequencing of Jefferson’s own DNA.

This 15-year research project, riddled with dead ends and roadblocks, finally turned a corner when researchers managed to extract enough of Jefferson’s DNA to use in testing thanks to hair samples found at Monticello — and discovered a match between his specific DNA and that of Hemings’ descendants.

“The DNA speaks for itself,” Kurin told NPR. “We know that there are descendants of Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings that have a whole lot of Thomas Jefferson DNA.”