Lucille Balthazar, only three generations removed from Madison Hemings of Monticello, heard of her connection to Jefferson from her father, William Giles Roberts, although he rarely spoke of it. He participated in the family mortuary business and owned a farm northeast of Los Angeles in the Apple Valley, where he had gardens and orchards. Mrs. Balthazar knew her grandmother, Ellen Hemings Roberts, well and loved to go to dinner at her house. Her grandmother “always set the table beautifully….each of us had our silver napkin rings with our name on it.”
Ancestry
Elizabeth Hemings
1735-1807Sally Hemings
1773-1835Madison Hemings
1805-1877Ellen Hemings Roberts
1856-1940Lucille Roberts Balthazar
1915-1998
