Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994                   TAG: 9402270052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

IS HAIR REALLY GEORGE WASHINGTON'S? FBI IS TRYING DNA TESTS TO FIND OUT

Using new genetic technology, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining snippets of hair supposedly cut from Washington's head and until now displayed in museums.

Initially, scientists should be able to say with some certainty whether the hair is authentic. As technology advances, the hair's genetic information may yield clues about the first president's health.

"It's fascinating. I'm holding onto something. It's not from a book, it's from his person," said Douglas Deedrick, a hair and fiber expert at the FBI's crime lab in Washington.

Deedrick looked at 11 hair samples under powerful microscopes. The samples will soon be shredded and the DNA molecules removed, he said. Scientists at another FBI lab in Quantico will then compare that DNA against samples provided by two direct descendants of Washington's sister.

In a procedure developed in the past year, the FBI will examine mitochondrial DNA, or the genetic building blocks that lie outside the cell nucleus. That type of DNA is quite hardy, surviving indefinitely in hair, bones, teeth or fingernails.

"You can actually look at something and say, `you're right, this is real,' or `it's a sham,' " Deedrick said.

It was common in the 18th and 19th centuries to preserve locks of hair of family members of famous people, often secured inside lockets or miniature pictures.

Many museums have bits of hair in their collections that supposedly came from Washington. And curators suspect at least some of the specimens are fake.

"People were anxious to own a bit of George Washington," and may have been tempted to pass off someone else's hair as his, said Christine Meadows, curator at Mount Vernon. Washington's home in Alexandria has more than 35 bits of hair in its collection, she said.

Mount Vernon and the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington are among several collections that submitted hairs to the FBI.

Mothers pass mitochondrial DNA information to all their children, but only daughters pass it on to the next generation. The way the DNA is arrayed in a cell, what scientists call its "sequence," is the same in people descended from the same mother, even though the genetic makeup of each family member is different.

"Of course I don't look anything like George Washington, or at least I hope I don't," said Eleanor Funkhouser, 67, who provided a hair clipping. She and her cousin, Eleanor Johnston, 70, are seventh-generation descendants of Betty Washington Lewis, Washington's only sister.

The mitochondrial DNA testing is similar to tests done increasingly on material from crime scenes, Deedrick said. But the technique is brand new, and the Washington project will be its most high-profile test so far, Deedrick said.

His preliminary tests appear to show some relation between all or most of the hair samples, Deedrick said. "We've got some that look like they came from the same person but we don't know yet whether that person is George Washington," he said.