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This person is an ancestor of President Abraham Lincoln. 16th US President
A son of Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln, Thomas very probably did NOT have Herring as middle name. In 1998, Paul H. Verduin - then General Secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic and a noted authority on President Lincoln's antecedents - pointed out two crucial items concerning Bathsheba Lincoln's maiden name. In a letter dated 13 October 1998, Verduin noted that : (1) the name Herring has not been found on any document relating to Bathsheba; and (2) the "tale was invented in 1908, some 140 years after her marriage to President Lincoln's grandfather, by the daughter of one of the co-authors of the highly flawed study of the Lincoln genealogy which appeared at that time". Verduin wrote further that the daughter "visited Rockingham County that summer and enticed a story from a couple of individuals named Chrisman. The tale had never been heard before [1908], and there's absolutely no evidence for it. I've searched high and low, but haven't found the answer - and it may well be that none is available from any extant records."[1]
On 12 June 1806, Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks in Washington County, Kentucky.[2], She was born on 5 February 1784 and died on 5 October 1818. On 2 December 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush, widow of Daniel Johnson. She was born on 13 December 1788 and died on 12 April 1869. Thomas predeceased Sarah on 17 January 1851 in Cole County, Illinois, where he had lived for twenty years.
The ancestry of Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks has always been somewhat of a mystery. For over a century, historians and genealogists have repeatedly made claims that they have finally solved the mystery of Lincoln's mother, and that everyone before them was wrong. They claim to be able to "prove the truth!" All of these theories regarding Nancy’s ancestry have been “documented” mainly through circumstantial evidence and oral traditions. There are very few primary documents remaining. The one thing that can be proven about Nancy’s origins is that no one can prove the truth, at least not yet.[3]
Tradition, also unproven, says that James Hanks was killed by Indians and Lucy married Henry Sparrow and remained in North Carolina. Tradition also says that, as a small child, Nancy Hanks went to Kentucky with her Aunt Naomi Shipley Mitchell (wife of Robert Mitchell). [4]
A widely accepted premise, again unproven, is as follows. Joseph Hanks, who had a daughter Nancy, also had a son James who married Lucy Shipley and had a daughter named Nancy. Lucy was widowed at an early age and later married Henry Sparrow. Lucy Shipley reportedly was in turn the youngest child of Robert Shipley and Sarah Rachel Dorcey. It is said that, after her husband James Hanks died, she and their daughter Nancy Hanks lived with his parents, Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee; further, that she moved with them to Kentucky and later married Henry Sparrow while Nancy went to live with her mother's sister and her husband [?] Berry.[5]
Baber presents various theories and traditions concerning the birth of Nancy Hanks in a number of different Virginia counties but proves none of them.[6]
Child's theory is that Lincoln's grandmother was Lucy Shipley who married James Hanks, a son of Joseph, and had a legitimate child, Nancy. However, that Joseph had a son James is purely circumstantial and is based on interaction between Lucy and the Shipley family. Child believes James died about 1785 making Lucy a young widow and accounting for the lack of records.[7]
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Thomas is 24 degrees from Herbert Adair, 20 degrees from Richard Adams, 17 degrees from Mel Blanc, 24 degrees from Dick Bruna, 17 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 28 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 19 degrees from Sam Edwards, 15 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 20 degrees from Marty Krofft, 13 degrees from Junius Matthews, 15 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 16 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
Categories: Parents of US Presidents | US President Direct Ancestor
There is no documentation available, which affirms that the family name of Bathsheba was Herring .
[1]
R. Andrew Pierce, a professional genealogist, is the author of The Stones Speak: Inscriptions from Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts [NEHGS, 2000]; The Wampanoag Genealogical History of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts [Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 2003]; and a six part series on the ancestry of President John F. Kennedy in NEHGS' Nexus journal. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 6101, Boston MA 02114, email [email address removed]
From Gary Boyd's Ancestors of American President ( 2009 ) NEHGS