Why couldn't Lucey have given Nancy to Abraham and Sarah to raise as their own?

+2 votes
356 views
Why can't both sides be right? Since there seems to be so much
correct information for the two families (who were related anyway)
why couldn't Joseph and Ann make Lucey give her baby to Abraham
and Sarah?
WikiTree profile: Nancy Lincoln
in Genealogy Help by
Side #1 - Joseph and wife Ann Hanks (daughter Lucey)
Side #2 - Abraham and wife Sarah Hanks (Joseph's brother or cousin)
With dna connection on both sides - maternally and paternally
we will never know the answer.
Maybe they could have. But they didn't. You bring up an interesting point. The profile you refer to is a duplicate of Nancy (Hanks-52) Lincoln, and much of the information it contains is wrong, starting with the opening sentence.  DNA has in fact proven her parentage, at least as far as who her mother was.

The bulk of the profile, a paragraph starting with "All Hanks historians agree..." is flat wrong on most counts. For instance, no one "agrees" that Lucey Hanks died in 1792 (she married in 1791, and started a large family); no one "agrees" that Nancy's father died in 1793-- because no one knows who her father was. Nancy did go live with relatives, but it was Lucey's childless sister, Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow who took in Nancy, when Lucey married Elizabeth's brother-in-law. The one source cited in this duplicate profile, Adin Baber, has been proven wrong on many counts, including the wife of Abraham Hanks.

The point you bring up with your perfectly reasonable question, given the misinformation in this duplicate profile, is this profile needs to be merged away.
If Sarah Harper was not the wife of Abraham Hanks who was?
According to Vicky Reany Paulson's "Abraham Lincoln's Hanks Family Genealogy,"  vol 2, p. 61, Abraham Hanks married Lucy Jennings on April 15, 1788 in Campbell County, VA. She cites the Campbell County Marriage Register, Book #1, p.27. On Adin Baber, Paulson says, "His statement: 'By presumptive and associate evidence, logical and reasonable deduction, and mathematics, Abraham Hanks has the most qualifications to be the father of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.' He pretty much admits he has no real documents to prove any of his statements."
Abraham Hanks (Jr.) was married to Lucy Jennings

Mary, you got me there. I knew it was a mistake to cite Vicky Reany Paulson, but I had just been looking at her Hanks genealogy books (which, I'm sorry, are not well written and not organized) and remembered her making that point about Sarah. Maybe the senior Abraham Hanks was marred to Sarah Harper-- I don't know and haven't really looked at that part of my family (my mother is a Hanks). But I think it's been established that Nancy Hanks lived with her mother, Lucey Hanks, until her marriage to Henry Sparrow, at which time she lived with Lucey's childless sister and her husband, Richard Sparrow, brother of Henry.

Thank you for the comments. My mother was also a Hanks (Tennessee) which is why I
became interested in this crazy mystery as to the lineage of Nancy.
After reading all the opinions of supposedly experts I came to the conclusion
that a pregnant girl whose family did not want to be disgraced might just
give her baby to a relative (who lived close by) to raise - Baber has so many
correct facts with family relatives backing him up it's hard not to believe
him. The main thing is that it is not widely publicized but both lines -
Abraham's and Joseph's (Lucy's father) have same dna in both lines -
(paternal) and (maternal). I don't think we will ever truly know the answer ...
What is your source for believing both lines having the same DNA?  "not widely publicized" facts are unreliable.
Will have to get information that is at home and send on Monday -
this is my work computer.
Not sure how to attach pdf files and not sure if you want to send me your email address? I have the mtDNA Reference for Abraham Lincoln - Who Was Nancy Hanks? by Colleen Fitzpatrick, PHD of Harvard Medical School (for maternal dna) and Wiki Tree provides info that I can show you of Abraham Hanks and Joseph Hanks being first cousins (and have lots of additional information at home). If you send an email I will send pdf's.
The wife of Abraham Hanks Sr was likely Jemima Million. Store records in PWC (Prince William County, VA) show that Abraham Hanks was a son-in-law of Robert Million. Nancy Hanks, dtr of Jmemima Hanks later married in Henry Co., KY in 1804. Abner Ford, a nephew of Jemima, was the bondsman. In 1807 John Hanks, son of Abraham and Jemima, first showed up in the Henry Co., KY Tax List.

As for Sarah Harper, she MAY have been the wife of Abraham Hanks Jr, whose son, Fielding Hanks, has Sarah Hanks as his mother on his death record. Abraham Jr had 2 sons with him (Fielding and George) when he married Mary Combs in NC as his 2nd wife. Adin Baber was mistaken.

1 Answer

+4 votes
 
Best answer
Reading the title of this post without reading the later commentary caused me to think: I thought only Ishmael and Jacob had dibs on Abraham and Sarah!
by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
selected by Susan Laursen

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