The Jefferson & Hemings Family Trees

I started drawing this complicated family tree to understand Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings — and the more I untangled it, the more one knot kept reappearing. It all traces back to one man: John Wayles, father of the two half-sisters — Martha, free, and Sally, enslaved — who each went on to bear Thomas Jefferson's children.

I built this tree from the book below, its sources, and the exhibitions at Monticello. Living descendants are named here only where they have publicly identified themselves and spoken about their ancestry — and Beverly's and Harriet's lines may still continue today in families who never learned the story.