Was Thomas Jefferson Jewish?: Researchers Find TJ's Possibly Jewish Genes By Debbie Schlussel Remember the stories claiming that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his Black slave, Sally Hemmings? Well, not exactly. DNA from her descendants matched Jefferson's uncle, Field Jefferson, not necessarily proving that Jefferson, himself (as opposed to his uncle or another relative), fathered Hemmings offspring. Now researchers say that same DNA from Field Jefferson shows that Jefferson possibly had one or more Jewish ancestors. In this case, the DNA discovery does apply to Thomas Jefferson, himself, as it runs in the males of the Jefferson family. Researchers have found that Jefferson's Y chromosome belongs to a lineage rare in Europe but common in Jews from the Middle East who came to Europe. This riases the possibility that our nation's third President and one of its Founding Fathers had one or more Jewish ancestors, possibly a Sephardic Jew. From the Was Thomas Je...