Interesting that Samantha Nolan would post that she is a descendant of James Buchanan, even stating that he did not have any children, but both of his brothers did. Since her great grandmother was one of his brother's grandchildren, then that makes her a descendent of President Buchanan's brother, not him; but in her opinion and that of our local paper, which ran an article similar to this (and might prefer that I don't give their name, or anything that might be betray the name of this town), that and their counting a fiftieth season as the fiftieth anniversary is "just a matter of semantics."

DNA tests did not and cannot prove that Jefferson fathered a child with Sally Hemings (read the test results online). I'm very surprised that the Smithsonian would print that Mr. Lanier is a descendant of Jefferson because of DNA testing. I want to trust that the Smithsonian organization is not going to throw away science in order to promote a popular idea that everyone is jumping onto the bandwagon to promote whether it's true or not, for political reasons. I would like to assume that the Smithsonian has no such agenda.

I am proud of my lineage, unbroken father to son, to a founding father John Rutledge. His signature can be found on the Constitution, and his brother Edward Rutledge's name adorns the Deceleration of Independence (he was the youngest to sign). John was a man of many achievements. He was a key member of both Constitutional Conventions; he even headed the committee which wrote the Constitution's first draft. He was the president of the Stamp Act Congress, one of the first Supreme Court Justices, 2nd Supreme Court Chief Justice, First President and Governor of South Carolina, and writer of that state's Constitution, as well as having been a key figure in the Revolutionary War for the south, among many other great works. I am also related to Robert E. Lee and George Washington's wife through my father's mother. I am proud of this country and its founders!

I am a descendant of a US president. James Buchanan did not have any children, but both of his brothers did. My great grandmother was one of his brother's grandchildren. We have tin type photos of the Buchanan family all the way back to the president.

While not related to a president, I am related to a Founding Father. On my mother’s side we’re related to two pre-Revolutionary War families on on her father’s side, the Ellicotts and the Wolcotts. One of the Wolcotts, Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut, was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Through the Maryland branch of the Wolcotts, I'm also related to the black-listed mystery author Dashiell Hammett.

The Ellicott family was divided by the Revolution, with the Pennsylvanian Quaker branch settling in what would become Ellicott City, Maryland in the 1770s, while another branch, Loyalists to the Crown, fled to Canada. In addition, two members of the Ellicott family were prominent surveyors; one of whom, Andrew Ellicott, helped set the boundaries of the District of Columbia, finish the plans for the capital at Washington, DC, and taught Meriwether Lewis everything he knew about surveying.

Mentioning this and $1.50 will get me a cup of regular coffee virtually anywhere in the country.

This is a great article. The picture of Mary Leigh Pell Whitmer and Nicholas Inman was taken in Marshfield, Missouri during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The festival is a wonderful event every year which brings together people from all walks of life to celebrate hometown America and everything that makes the United States so unique. Information about past and future festivals can be found at www.cherryblossomfest.com.

There is one minor error in this piece about my cousin, Shannon Lanier. The Monticello Association did not "host" the Hemings at the annual reunion in 1999, or during any of the subsequent reunions. I invited my Hemings cousins as my guests at the first reunion in 1999, and to other reunions until 2002, when the Monticello Association voted 96 to 5 against admitting our Hemings cousins as members, in effect, banning them officially from the "recognized" descendants of Jefferson. The five votes in favor of including the Hemings were all Truscotts.

The Monticello association formed a "membership committee" to examine the claim by the Hemings family to descendancy from Jefferson and found against them. The "membership committee's" report was notable for one major reason. During two years of deliberations, they did not contact or speak with a single member of the Hemings family or examine any of their family histories or documents.

My sister and I have stopped attended Monticello Association reunions at Monticello and now attend similar gathers of the Hemings family, to whom we feel closer.

Lucian K. Truscott IV

This is a great article. Recently I found out that I am a great grandson of the James Wilson (one of our nations founding fathers). While he is less known, he played a very large roll in the beginning of our country. It is amazing to see what came from his genetics through the years. Some have been very successful, others have lived quieter and easier lives. I do not believe any have had any political ambitions to my knowledge. I at 26 hope to involve myself in government at some point. Graduated with a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma. Attended Law School at the Oklahoma City School of Law for a period of time before I realized it was a bad financial investment in this economy. Current I am finishing my Masters of Science in MIS at OU. I can only hope to lead such an exciting fruitful life as James did. He did so much for our country.

Here is what John Quincy Adams had to say about Mr. Tyler -

At thirty minutes past midnight, on this morning of Palm Sunday, the 4th of April 1841, died William Henry Harrison. For precisely one calendar month he was President of the United States. He lies a lifeless corpse in the palace provided by his country for his abode. He was amiable and benevolent.

The influence of this event upon the condition and history of the country can scarcely be foreseen. It makes the Vice President of the United States, John Tyler, of Virginia, Acting President of the Union for four years less just one month. Tyler is a political sectarian, of the slave driving, Virginian, Jeffersonian school, principled against all improvement, with all the interests and passions and vices of slavery rooted in his moral and political constitution—with talents not above mediocrity. It places in the executive chair a man never thought of for it by anybody. This day was in every sense gloomy—Rain the whole day.

Mr. Tyler styles himself “President of the United States!” Not: Vice President acting as President, which would be the correct style. To a strict constructionist there is more than a doubt whether the Vice-President has the right to occupy the President’s House, or to claim his salary, without an act of Congress.