Posted on 05/28/2009 5:25:39 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Three descendants of Venus' son, who was called West Ford, say that according to a family tradition two centuries old, George Washington was West Ford's father. They hope to develop DNA evidence from Washington family descendants and his hair samples to bolster their case... There is, however, reason to believe that if the child's father was not Washington, it might have been someone closely related to him. The cousins' claim has several elements of truth, enough to set up a historical mystery as to the identity of West Ford's father and to add a new strand to the emerging links between the black and white sides of slave-owning families.... there is no evidence that George Washington ever met Venus. Unlike Sally Hemings, who was a personal attendant of Jefferson, Venus lived on a distant estate belonging to Washington's brother, John Augustine Washington. The plantation was at Bushfield, one and a half to two day's hard riding from Washington's home at Mount Vernon... Mary V. Thompson, a research specialist at Mount Vernon, said she had consulted many records but could find no evidence that Washington and Venus were ever in the same place at the same time. West Ford, Venus' son, seems to have been born before June 1784, or possibly before November 1785, according to an ambiguous statement in the will of Hannah Washington, John Augustine's wife, Ms. Thompson said. Only the later date allows any possibility that George Washington was the father: the general was away fighting the Revolutionary War and did not return home to Mount Vernon until Christmas Eve of 1783.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It is entirely possible that a fertile relative fathered Ford ... or not.
Thanks waggs!
[takes a bow]
As everyone should know by now, Looter Guy is the illegitimate son of Willie Mays and May West. Please stop spreading baseless rumors.
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