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Ancestors of Abraham Lincoln

Generation No. 2

       2. Thomas Lincoln, born January 06, 1778 in Linville Creek, Rockingham County, VA¹⁴; died January 17, 1851 in near Farmington, Goosenest Prairie, Coles Co., IL (near Janesville)¹⁵. He was the son of 4. Abraham Lincoln and 5. Bathsheba Herring. He married 3. Nancy Hanks June 12, 1806 in Richard Berry home, Beechland, Washington County, KY.
       3. Nancy Hanks, born February 05, 1784 in Pipers Gap, Carroll Co., VA^16,¹⁷; died October 05, 1818 in Little Pigeon Creek, Gentryville, Spencer County, Indiana¹⁸. She was the daughter of 6. Abraham Hanks and 7. Sarah Harper.

Notes for Thomas Lincoln:
Shortly after his father's death, moved with his widowed mother to Nelson County, KY

Notes for Nancy Hanks:
From "Who Was Nancy Hanks Lincoln" by David A. Sturgill:
       "Joshua (Hanks, brother of Abraham [Nancy's father]) was granted land in Carroll Co. [VA] shortly after they [Abraham, John & Joshua -- brothers, sons of Richard Hanks Sr.] arrived there [Carroll Co., VA], and Abraham helped him [Joshua] build a log cabin on this land while awaiting the birth of their last child who was Nancy and who was born in the following Feb. of 1784. . . .
       "All Hanks historians have agreed that Nancy was born Feb. 5, 1784 as this date was entered in an old Lincoln family Bible. They also agree that her mother died when she was eight years of age which would have been in 1792 and that her father died a year later (1793) after which Nancy went to live with relatives in NC. There is some disagreement as to who she lived with after the death of her parents but a strong family tradition is that she lived with her uncle James Hanks in Wilkes Co., NC. There is also some disagreement as to when and how she got to Kentucky but three different branches of the family have a tradition that a brother or brothers came back to NC from KY after her shortly before 1800 and took her back to western KY when she was 13-14 years of age, and then when the last of her brothers left that part of KY she was placed in the home of Richard Berry whom they had known in Virginia. She probably worked as a servant in the Berry home until she married Thomas Lincoln in 1806 when she was twenty two years of age. Richard Berry signed her marriage bond as her guardian but there is no known record by which he was officially appointed to this position. The remaining history of Nancy Hanks Lincoln is well documented. . . .
       "During the 1960s and again in the 1980s several of the older residents of the Pipers Gap area of Carroll Co. VA were interviewed by the writer and others looking for information about the early Hanks families who settled in this area. Some of those who were interviewed were Hanks descendants and some were not, but without exception all of these older people were firm in their belief that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was born there. The remains of two old chimneys still stand at the original homesite of Joshua Hanks and a spring house once stood about half way between where the houses stood. It is local tradition that an un-named brother of Joshua Hanks once lived in the smaller house and that both families used the same spring house. County deed records show that Joshua Hanks donated land for the old Quaker church and cemetery where he was buried and has a marked stone. It is also local tradition that the unknown brother, who could not have been anyone other than Abraham Hanks, was also buried in the same cemetery. . . .
       "As stated, family traditions and some public records indicate that Abraham Hanks and his wife Sarah returned to Carroll Co., VA from NC 1789-90 and Sarah died about two years later (1792). By this time all of their sons had moved on to western KY including their youngest son John who was only 14-15 years old. Census and tax records show that son Abraham Jr. moved from Caswell Co. NC to Hardin Co., KY before 1800 so he probably took his younger brother John with him as John appears in the records of the same County in KY after 1800. This left only two daughters in Abraham's family when they returned to VA, these were Amy and Nancy. Shortly after the death of their mother Amy married George Walters and they moved to Ashe Co. NC leaving only Nancy still at home. When Abraham died a year after his wife, Nancy became an orphan. . . .
       "Many historians have agreed that Nancy went to NC to live with relatives after the death of her parents. Adin Baber concluded that she was taken to Lincoln Co., NC to live with her uncle Richard (Dicky) but this appears highly unlikely for several reasons, the first of which is, 'why would she have been taken two hundred miles away when she had close relatives living very near by?' Mr. Baber probably heard the tradition that she lived with an uncle and Richard was the only uncle in NC who he could identify, he apparently did not know that her uncle James had moved from Lincoln Co., NC to Wilkes Co. and was living there when Nancy's mother died. Other close relatives who lived near were Nancy's sister Sarah Hanks Sturgill, her uncle Joshua Hanks, her uncle George Harper and her aunt Elizabeth Harper Wright. At that time both her uncle Joshua and her sister Sarah had four small children and another on the way and her sister Amy had moved away. Little is known of the families of her Harper relatives but her uncle James Hanks who lived in nearby Wilkes Co. also had three small children near Nancy's age, so she probably preferred to live with her uncle James until a brother took her to Kentucky. In 1906 a newspaper printed in Wilkesboro, NC told the story of Nancy Hanks and stated that she did live with her uncle James in Wilkes Co. This story also said that when her brother came after her young Tom Lincoln came with him, but no public records or other traditions support this. Even to the present time the tradition still persists among descendants of James Hanks and others that Nancy did live there for a time and after interviews with several of these people the writer is also convinced that the traditions are correct, as they are also very logical."

Notes for Sarah Bush:
"A tall, attractive widow with three children" - Benjamin P. Thomas

While Thomas Lincoln was on a flatboat trip to New Orleans with Sarah's brother Isaac, she married Daniel Johnston (3-13-1806). Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks June 12, 1806.

       Children of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks are:

Sarah Lincoln, born February 10, 1807 in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, KY¹⁹; died January 20, 1828 in Little Pigeon Creek Bapt Ch, Gentryville, Spencer County, Indiana^20,²¹; married Aaron Grigsby August 02, 1826 in Spencer County, Indiana²².

Notes for Sarah Lincoln:
Buried with a stillborn child in her arms.
Notes for Aaron Grigsby:
of Gentryville, Indiana

ii.

Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809 in family home, Sinking Spring Farm, near Hodgenville, Hardin Co. (now Larue), KY; died April 15, 1865 in SmallNarrow RoomAtRear,1stFloor, WmPetersenLodging House,10thSt.,Wash.,DC 7:22am; married Mary Ann Todd November 04, 1842 in the Edwards' "mansion," "Aristocracy Hill," Springfield, Sangamon Co., IL.

iii.

Thomas Lincoln, born 1811 in Nolin Creek, Washington Co., KY (or possibly Hardin Co.)^23,²⁴; died Abt. 1811 in Redman Cemetery, Knob Creek, KY²⁵.

Notes for Thomas Lincoln:
Another source has "born after 1813, died aged a few months."

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