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3. Cawein, Madison and E.J. Lappat, “Hereditary Methemoglobinemia” in Hemoglobin, Its Precursors and Metabolites, ed. by Published: February 28, 2007
F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964.
Was the first Jewish president? Researchers studying Jefferson’s Y chromosome have found it belongs to a lineage that is Estimated Population of American Colonies 1620 to 1780
rare in Europe but common in the Middle East, raising the possibility that the third president of the United States had a Jewish Series Z-19 U.S. Census
ancestor many generations ago.
No biological samples of Jefferson remain, but his Y chromosome, the genetic element that determines maleness, is assumed Year 1780 1760 1740 1720 1700 1680 1660 1640 1620
to be the same as that carried by living descendants of Field Jefferson, his paternal uncle. These relatives donated cells for an inquiry into whether Jefferson had fathered a hidden family with his slave , a possibility that most historians had scoffed at.
Tot Pop. 2,780,400 1,593,600 905,600 466,200 250,900 151,500 75,100 26,600 500
But researchers reported in 1998 that the Jefferson family chromosome matched perfectly that of a male-line descendant of Eston Hemings, one of Sally Hemings’s sons. The genetic evidence was not conclusive by itself but made a strong case combined
-1 49,100 20,000 - - - - - 900 - -2 87,800 39,100 23,300 9,400 5,000 2,000 1,600 1,100 - -3 47,600 - - - - - - - - -4 - - - - - 6,400
with the historical evidence that Hemings had indeed become Jefferson’s mistress after the death of his wife, Martha.
2,000 1,000 100 268,600 202,600 151,600 91,000 55,900 39,800 20,100 8,900 52,900 45,500 25,300 11,700 5,900 3,000 1,500
Geneticists at the University of Leicester in England, led by Turi E. King and Mark A. Jobling, have now undertaken a sur-300 - 206,700 142,500 89,600 58,800 26,000 17,200 8,000 1,500 - 210,500 117,100 63,700 36,900 19,100 9,800 4,900 1,900 -
vey of the branch or lineage to which Jefferson’s Y chromosome belongs. All Y chromosomes fall on branches of a single tree, 139,600 93,800 51,400 29,800 14,000 3,400 - - - 327,300 183,700 85,600 31,000 18,000 700 - - - 45,400 33,300 19,900 5,400
descended from one man in the ancestral human population. The reason is that all the other potential Adams in this population 2,500 1,000 500 - - 245,500 162,300 116,100 66,100 29,600 17,900 8,400 500 - 538,000 339,700 180,400 87,800 58,600 43,600
had Y chromosomes that fell extinct when they had no children or only daughters.
27,000 10,400 400 270,100 110,400 51,800 21,300 10,700 5,400 1,000 - - 180,000 94,100 45,000 17,000 5,700 1,200 - - - 56,100
Jefferson’s Y chromosome belongs to the branch designated K2, which is quite rare. It occurs in a few men in Spain and 9,600 2,000 - - - - - - 45,000 - - - - - - - - 10,000 - - - - - - -
Portugal and is most common in the Middle East and eastern Africa, being carried by about 10 percent of men in Oman and Somalia, the geneticists report in the current issue of The American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Year 1780 1760 1740 1720 1700 1680 1660 1640 1620 New Eng. (ME to CT) 712,800 449,600 289,700 170,900 92,800
Puzzled at the lack of K2 Y chromosomes in Britain given that Jefferson’s own family traced its origin to Wales, Dr. Jobling’s 68,500 33,200 13,700 100 % Black -5 2.0% 2.8% 2.9% 2.3% 1.8% 0.7% 1.8% 1.5% 0.0% Middle (NY to DE) 722,900
group decided to scan a special population most likely to carry K2 — that of men named Jefferson.
427,900 220,600 103,100 53,600 14,900 5,400 1,900 - % Black -6 5.9% 6.8% 7.5% 10.5% 6.9% 10.1% 11.1% 10.5% 0.0%
Of 85 British Jeffersons tested, just two proved to have Y chromosomes of the K2 lineage. The paternal grandfather of one South (MD to TN) 1,344,700 716,000 395,300 192,300 104,600 68,100 36,400 11,000 400 % Black -7 38.6% 39.7% 31.6%
was born in Yorkshire, that of the other in the West Midlands.
28.1% 21.5% 7.3% 4.7% 1.8% 0.0%
Discovery of these two English members of K2 supports the idea that Thomas Jefferson’s recent paternal ancestry is from Britain. Had they not been found, Dr. Jobling’s team writes, the geographic distribution of K2 would have made the Middle East seem the most likely origin of Jefferson’s family.
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