New Kensington woman, 95, is oldest descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

April 13 was the 281st anniversary of the birth of Mary Lee Brady-Atkins’ great-great-great-grandfather.

The same could be said for lots of people, but Brady-­Atkins’ ancestor was Thomas Jefferson. Yes, that Thomas Jefferson — third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence.

It’s quite the heritage for the New Kensington woman, and one that Brady-Atkins, 95, was scarcely aware of for most of her life. It’s even more surprising because Brady-Atkins is Black.

Her great-great-great-grandmother was Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Jefferson’s home of Monticello, Va. Jefferson and Hemings had four children who survived to adulthood. One of them, Madison Hemings, was Brady-­Atkins’ great-great-grand­father.

A search for truth

Brady-Atkins said the first hint of her ancestry came around 2000, while she was talking with Julia Westerinen, a white woman who said she was surprised to learn she was part Black.

One of Westerinen’s ancestors was Eston Hemings, the youngest of Sally Hemings’ children.

Brady-Atkins, too, was related to Eston Hemings. It was about that time that the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, long-rumored, was being confirmed through historical research. DNA technology had yet to become a common tool for ancestry.

The revelation sparked a search for the truth by Brady-Atkins and her husband, Robert Atkins.

Back then, Brady-Atkins said, “Black folks came out of the woodwork, claiming that they were also descendants of Hemings.”

But Robert Atkins is a historian. He dug into the details and focused on getting historical facts. The couple developed Brady Enterprise Association Inc. to document their findings. They even traveled to Paris, where it’s believed the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson, 30 years Hemings’ senior, became sexual, according to monticello.org, website for the Monticello Society, which is the historical society that tracks Jefferson’s history and the history of his home.

Back home, Brady-Atkins and her husband received a lot of information that assisted in the research from Brady-Atkins’ cousin, Shay Banks-Young, and aunt, Nancy Lee.

Lee, like Brady-Atkins, attended the University of Pittsburgh and dedicated much of her life to service and social work. Brady-Atkins later went on to receive a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate from Smith College in Northampton, Mass. Brady-Atkins was a professor of psychology for 51 years at Michigan State University.

Eventually, Brady-Atkins and her husband “invited ourselves” to Monticello when the Monticello Society was having one of its annual meetings.

“It was the first time I had ever seen white folks argue about whether we should be in a space or not. Some of them wanted us there and some of them did not want us there,” she said. “Those that wanted us there combined DNA and were able to make the connection that Julia Westerinen, a descendant of Eston Hemings, did have some Jefferson genes.”

Brady-Atkins kept a relationship via email with the people who made the connection regarding Westerinen and the Hemings family.

“About 15 years ago, the Smithsonian Institute started a DNA study, which is not yet completed, and, periodically, I would hear from someone. Otherwise, I didn’t give it much thought,” Brady-Atkins said. “But I am the eldest Hemings, and I think most people were surprised that I am still so preserved.”

The Jefferson family has acknowledged her relation to them, according to Brady-Atkins. Since her initial visit to Monticello, she has been back several times.

A special gift

It was on one of those visits, in 2023, that Brady-Atkins received something few other people have: a parchment copy of the original Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson family gave it to her, she said, as an acknowledgement of her relationship to the family.

But her copy isn’t what’s been taught in history classes since the founding of the country. It’s shows the conflict Jefferson, himself a slave owner, had with the practice.

“It condemns slavery and the atrocities of the slave trade — and the Continental Congress wouldn’t approve, but the later iteration that left out the comments about slavery is the one we follow today,” said Robert Atkins, as he displayed the copy that is dedicated to his wife.

Slavery was legal in all 13 original American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War, according to monticello.org. The economies of most colonies at that time were dependent, either directly or indirectly, on slavery, hence the reluctance of the Continental Congress to approve Jefferson’s original version.

Jefferson’s edits to that version can be seen on Brady-Atkins’ copy, with passages scratched out and notes made in the margins and between lines of writing.

Preserving little-known history

Brady-Atkins recently was contacted by film director Sanjay Rawal.

“Dr. Mary is a national treasure whose story is indelibly woven into our national fabric,” Rawal said. “It’s our mission to ensure that as many people as possible know of her inspiring life and heritage — both now and for centuries to come.”

Rawal also was interested in the long friendship that Brady-Atkins formed with the Jefferson family, despite the ancestry being connected to enslavement.

“I wanted to explore those connections. Most importantly, I wanted to understand her magnanimity in having such a wide definition of family. I was curious if and how her open-heartedness might be applicable for the rest of us in America,” Rawal said.

The documentary is expected to premiere on Netflix in 2025. A release date and title have not been announced.

For Robert Atkins, the history is about more than just Jefferson or the Declaration of Independence.

“I was interested in the topics, rather than Jefferson. There would not have been any Thomas Jefferson to write about had it not been for Betty Hemings,” Robert Atkins said.

Betty Hemings was the mother of Sally Hemings and another of Brady-Atkins’ ancestors.

“Women brought forth these matters — women were really the storytellers,” Atkins said.

According to Atkins, when the Revolutionary War broke out, the British came to hang Jefferson for writing the Declaration of Independence.

It was Betty Hemings who managed Monticello — with her offspring watching, they protected Jefferson and allowed him to escape.

“You can’t leave (women) out of the story because they are such a big part of the story,” said Robert Atkins, 85.

Earlier in February, Brady-Atkins was inducted into the Pittsburgh Westinghouse school’s Wall of Fame in Homewood. It’s her alma mater. Now, Feb. 8 stands as “Dr. Mary Elizabeth Hemings Butler Lee Brady-Atkins Day” in the city of Pittsburgh, an honor she cherishes and is grateful for. The surnames are all part of her ancestry.

Brady-Atkins gets a little overwhelmed by the attention — she is not used to people paying much attention to her — but she is grateful.

A native of Homewood, Brady-Atkins grew up on Monticello Street.

She pauses for a moment to reflect on that.

She thinks her father chose that street with intention rather than coincidence.