Daily Archives: August 9, 2026

Making Absence Findable Without Making Fabrication Admissible: Institutional Design for the Recovery of Unnamed Maternity

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The four preceding papers in this series established an evidentiary typology for founding-era paternity claims, demonstrated that the standard applied to the Jefferson–Hemings case was anomalously strict relative to like claims, proposed a genetic-genealogical program for identifying the mother … Continue reading →

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The Unasked Question: Historiographical Incuriosity Toward the Mothers of Acknowledged Illegitimate Children, and a Program for Genetic Resolution

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract American historical writing exhibits a consistent and underexamined pattern: where a prominent man acknowledged an illegitimate child, the acknowledgment closed the biographical question, and the mother’s identity ceased to be treated as a research problem. This paper documents the … Continue reading →

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Identifying the Mother of William Franklin: A Proposal for a Genetic-Genealogical and Documentary Research Program

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The maternity of William Franklin (c. 1730–1813), illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin and royal governor of New Jersey, has never been resolved. No contemporary document names the woman; no family tradition survives naming her; the historiography has produced candidates … Continue reading →

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Comparable Cases: The Jefferson–Hemings Question Against Other Founding-Era Paternity Claims

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The Jefferson–Hemings case is frequently discussed as though it were singular — either as a uniquely well-documented scandal or as a uniquely aggressive scholarly imposition. Neither framing survives comparison. This paper surveys the founding generation for structurally similar claims: … Continue reading →

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Evidentiary Standards and the Jefferson–Hemings Question: Distinguishing Genetic Findings, Circumstantial Inference, and Family Tradition

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract Public and institutional discourse increasingly treats three distinct propositions as a single settled fact: that Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of Sally Hemings, that the 1998 Y-chromosome study demonstrated this, and that Jefferson and Hemings concluded a negotiated agreement … Continue reading →

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Judge Not?  Judge Better.

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, August 8, 2026.] Almost everyone who has spent time around the Bible has run into it. You … Continue reading →

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