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Sally lived with Thomas Jefferson as his presumed mistress from April, 1789 until his death in July, 1826, 37 years later. She was at his death bed when he died. She and her sons were named and provided for in his will. She and her sons were the only among the 187 slaves of Thomas Jefferson who were not auctioned off after his death. Sally was not auctioned off because everybody knew that she has been the president's mistress, even though she had been given a value of $50 in the accounting of his estate.
There is no evidence that Sally had any contact at all with any other relatives of Thomas Jefferson on his father's side.
Barger claims that Randolph Jefferson, the brother of Thomas Jefferson, could have been the father. However, Randolph Jefferson was mentally retarded and lived at Monticello essentially as a ward of Thomas Jefferson. Nobody who knew him has ever suggested that Randolph Jefferson might have fathered these children.
Speculation has always centered around the Carr brothers, who were capable men, one of whom became a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. However, the Carr brothers were specifically eliminated by the DNA study, because they were relatives on the sister’s side and did not share the unique Y chromosome of Thomas Jefferson.
No other relative of Thomas Jefferson was at Monticello during the years that these children were born, and there is no basis to conclude that anyone other than Thomas Jefferson was their father.
Advocates of the contrary point of view make the interesting argument that since Thomas Jefferson continued to live with Sally even after this controversy broke in the newspapers in September, 1802, he must not have been the father, or else he would have distanced himself from Sally. However, it is being pointed out that Clinton continued to give gifts to Lewinsky even after her name appeared on Starr's list.
Sam Sloan