A Potential Presidential Connection

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1: Family Lore

As most of us have, I heard stories many times from my maternal family about walking to school uphill both ways in the snow, barefoot. It’s funny how these stories grow as each family member tells them! On my paternal side though, I didn’t hear any stories growing up because I am adopted within my biological mother’s family. This story has evolved on my paternal side through mtDNA and traditional genealogy research and suggests that I am likely distantly related to President Abraham Lincoln. It starts with my paternal 5^th great grandparents.

Joseph Hanks was born on 20 December 1725 in Farnham, Richmond County, Virginia. He married Ann Lee about 1750. She was born in 1737 in Richmond City, Virginia. After their children were born (all in Virginia), the family migrated to Kentucky. Joseph died in 1793 leaving a will dated and proven the same year. The will named his wife and children. Thomas Lincoln, father of President Abraham Lincoln, was born in Virginia and raised in Kentucky. He moved to Hardin County, Kentucky and within a few years married Nancy Hanks, granddaughter of Joseph & Ann. The union of the Lincoln & Hanks family is my first potential connection to President Lincoln.

There is a long-standing controversy regarding Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s heritage. She is the wife of Thomas Lincoln and the mother of Abraham Lincoln. No documentation has been located to prove Nancy’s parents, so that creates a tremendous amount of controversy. Is she the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks (daughter of Joseph & Ann, who later married Henry Sparrow) or the daughter of Lucinda “Lucy” Shipley (who married James Hanks, son of Joseph and Ann)? This who’s who saga continues to be challenged even today, but DNA evidence is starting to rule out a Shipley relationship. The mtDNA research below shows the basic genealogical connections as documented by: https://geneticlincoln.com/nhl-mtdna/:

This interpretation identifies Joseph Hanks & Ann “Nancy” Lee as President Lincoln’s great grandparents through their daughter Lucy Nancy Hanks. My biological line is through their daughter, Mary Hanks and her husband Jesse Friend (identified in the orange square).

In different articles, Lucy Nancy Hanks is recorded as having a daughter out of wedlock named Nancy Elizabeth Hanks. It’s also suggested that Nancy Elizabeth Hanks was raised by her grandparents. So, that means there were three Nancy Hanks in the Joseph Hanks household – the grandmother, Ann “Nancy/Nannie” Lee, her daughter, Nancy Hanks (who married Levi Hall) and her granddaughter Nancy Elizabeth Hanks. The granddaughter, Nancy Elizabeth Hanks married Thomas Lincoln on 12 June 1806 in Kentucky, they are the accepted parents of President Lincoln.

I am distantly connected regardless of the true Lucy or Nancy Hanks. Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee had a daughter, Mary “Polly” Hanks, who was born on 23 March 1773 in Farnham, Richmond County, Virginia. Mary married Jesse Friend on 10 December 1795 in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky. Mary & Jesse are my 4^th great grandparents.

Today, I identified a second possible lineage connection.  The WikiTree Tool indicates I’m 14 degrees from Abraham Lincoln through his father Thomas Lincoln.  So, connected on both his mother and father's sides - another research project!!