This is precisely the case in my family. My husband is African-American. His g-g-grandfather was the son of a wealthy North Carolina plantation owner (Henderson) and his black housekeeper (Mary), who had 10 children together. Henderson never married a white woman, and was apparently in love and devoted to his "wife". Henderson died in 1871, and in the land trust he left for his children, he makes the legal admission that the 9 remaining children were in fact, his.
Henderson had an extraordinary story, including an incident involving the KKK, at which time Mary disappeared and Henderson was castrated, resulting in his death a few months later.
I hope to write a book about all this someday.
In any case, Henderson had many brothers and sisters, so in addition to my husband's African-American side, there are the white relatives, whom many, quite frankly, would like to pretend that the black side didn't exit.
This is why it doesn't surprise me that ,even after all the mountain of evidence that exists, so many people still want to deny that Jefferson had children with Sally Hemings. 100% proof? Nope, doesn't exist. Then again, do any of us have 100% proof that we're biologically descended from any of the people we believe we are.
After all, my g-grandfather had a brother .......
B Rgds
Linda Kramer-Edwards
PS, We have identified the male to male to male descendent of Henderson that we are going to have tested. Henderson's grandfather, John, was first located in Virginia around 1760, but we don't know where he was born. We believe he was descended from the families with the same surname in New England. Ironically, if we are able to match to the New England families, that will provide the answer not only for the black branch, but also for the white branch (that wants to pretend the black side doesn't exist : - )
-------------- Original message from "LadyBonita (USA)" <ladybonita@usa.com>: --------------