Is there anyone out there who is related to the US 16th President (“Honest Abe?” [closed]

Question

I always knew that President Lincoln was related to us, as my late paternal Grandmother proudly kept impeccable handwritten records (family tree) of it, but never knew the exact relation. Now, after building part of my family tree, I found out that he is my 5th cousin, 4 times removed, basically a “distant cousin.” His 4th great grandparents (“Sam the Weaver” Lincoln and Martha Lyford Lincoln) are my 8th great grandparents. Anyone else?

Comments

I am 7th cousin 5x removed from President Lincoln. Our shared ancestor, Richard Whitman, was born in England about 1570! Although Richard Whitman never made it to this continent, he's had a big influence - he's not only a direct ancestor of Walt Whitman (through son Zachariah), President Lincoln (through his son John), but also Presidents Bush and James Garfield (through his daughter Elizabeth & Thomas Stream). Richard Whitman's profile is  wiki/Whitman-94.

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I'm trying to find information about this my grandmother always told me and my kids that Abraham Lincoln is my dad's 32nd cousin and my 33rd cousin but now she has passed away my grandfather Elwood Leon Fetterolf  also passed away so if anyone can possibly help me I'd greatly appreciate it

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Maybe she was making a joke.  At that level of connectedness, everyone is related to everyone else.  It's like saying you're descended from Charlamagne.  So what? So's everyone else.

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Stu, while I might agree with your basic point, you may miss several other points re genealogy.  It's not so much to say that one is related to Charlemagne, its being able to trace the relationship through records and even become a vetted member of the Charlemagne Family.  When you consider life spans within each generation of ancestors, war, plague, migrations, and the multitudes of other calamities that have struck the human race in the last 3000 years, it's a wonder that a single person can trace back a direct line some 45 generations.

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Yes I am related to President Lincoln.

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According to Family Search, he is my 8th cousin, five times removed.  This is through my Vaughan line.

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My Name is Bobby Angell Nancy Hanks Lincoln is my 5th great Aunt My great grandma Cordiella Hanks is the daughter of Albert Ellsworth hanks and he is the son of Ellsworth hanks who was the son of solomon hanks. Now Solomon is the son of Joshua hanks and Joshua hanks is the son of Joseph hanks brother to Nancy Hanks lincoln. My great grandmas Aunt cora mae hanks linenweber did a huge reasearch project on Nancy hanks and I always knew we was related from family notes but could not figure out how untill one day I received a biography my great grandma and her Aunt cora mae did way back when it was then I went to the lincoln memorial library and searched for my great grandmas name and was able to find it. Solomon hanks was best friends with Abraham and his family not just cousins. Anyone else related to us?

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It is my understanding President Lincoln has no descendants now living, so DNA is not helpful.  However, if you are related to Nancy Hanks you are related to him.  If you think you are related through the Lincolns you probably are not, as it is widely believed that Lincoln’s biological father was a man named Abraham Enloe, who had been Nancy’s employer.  Enloe was a southerner and a man of higher intelligence than Thomas Lincoln, who, was just Lincoln’s stepfather.  Enloe had a large family, the youngest son of whom was interviewed about this long after the president’s death.  This man, Wesley Enloe, had the same long and lanky physique as the president.  He said he had always known the story of Nancy Hanks being a servant in the house and falling pregnant there.   This caused a difficulty in the Enloe marriage so his father sent Nancy away but paid for her to be cared for.  It was also said Lincoln was given money to marry her.  

Abraham Lincoln privately acknowledged this, even giving one of his Enloe nephews a commission even though he was a southerner and a democrat.   Lincoln and his heirs created a different myth about his background to cover up the illegitimacy.   He could not have succeeded in office if this was publicly known.   The people of western North Carolina who descend from Enloe have perpetuated the story.  That is DNA that should be tested.

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Joseph hanks is my 5th great grandfather he is the father of Nancy Hanks lincoln and Nancy Shipley who is my 5th great grandmother. Cordiella Hanks daughter of Albert Ellsworth Hanks son of Solomon Hanks who is cousins with Nancy Hanks lincoln and was good friends with Abraham lincoln his cousin. Solomon is my 4th great grandfather. Cordiella Hanks married Robert Bailey Angell in Sibley IL he is my great grandfather he is my Grandpa's father. According to my 4th great Grandfathers obituary He was the last known decendant related to Abraham lincoln. According to ancestry Abraham lincoln is my 5th cousin 5 times removed I have all the information I need to email it to prove this. I am related only through the Hanks family.

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He is my 3rd cousin 7 times removed.

Answer 1

He may have been an American President but was not a president of my Country.  I don't mean to be picky but sometimes some of the Americans here forget that there are a lot of volunteers here that are not American. If I did not know that this website is international. and  I came across this website accidently and saw  a question worded as above  I would assume that this website is for American Genealogy only.

Comments

Hi Anonymous,

I gave you an  "up" vote because I'm guilty of posting towards the American audience.   I'm trying to stop that habit because I so enjoy many of the non-american members,  but I do slip up.

However,  when your wikitree ID is Anonymous Anonymous,  it distracts from your honest intentions towards working with us.    If you're here for the  "long haul"  we'd enjoy seeing a more personal side of you.

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Just trying to understand why a post on G2G with a question about an American president and relationships is so controversial.    There are posts about relationships to Queen Elizabeth, posts about other famous people.   This week the relationship finder on your profile includes Henry VIII.

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It was the word  "our"  followed by 16th President, I don't celebrate the 4th of July nor Thanksgiving because i am not an American therefore the 16th President of the USA was never my President. I don't say our Henry VIII, or Our Queen Elizabeth II. it just sometimes because this site has so many Americans on it some of you Americans  forget that there are other nationalities that use this site. This is not the only example i have found.that seems to assume everyone here is an American.  As I already said if I saw a question  worded as above on another website I would assume that, that website was for Ameircans only. 

ps is it true that americans eat pumpkin cheesecake

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In reply to your comment about why I use anonymous  anonymous here it is because a 5 th cousin of mine without the permission of all my living relatives put a lot of information about my family online, including my siblings, cousins, 2nd cousins etc they are still living. I was somewhat horrified about that, I had been collaborating with my more distant relatives like my 5th cousin, I had at the time typed (yes I used a typewriter) my family history and given out   copies to all my known relatives.  It was I thought a private family history to be shared within the family. However when the internet got popular he put the family history online with details of living relatives  I am always concerned that if I use my real name then someone somewhere will be able to track my real name to that website and I am very mindful that this could compromise the privacy of my siblings. cousins etc. Without a real name it will be much harder to find this website. I had my account confirmed on the 10th September 2015, I am rather computer illiterate, so it take me forever to make a profile, so it has been slow going for me,  I already have a lot of information still on paper about people who are related to me, that I have not added here because it take me so long to do so and have mainly worked on direct ancestors.

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Thanks for your response and I have corrected the question to be more neutral.

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thank you

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Oh, my! Was it me who wrote “our?” If so, I guess I’ve lived here too long and am used to saying “our...”

Please don’t take any offense to it, and thank you to whoever fixed the question.

In answer to your question about pumpkin cheesecake, I LOVE pumpkin anything! Bread, yogurt, ice cream, muffins, hot cocoa, hummus, egg nog, with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies being my favorite. I don’t know if it’s just a local (New England area), thing, but we look forward to each autumn, the only time of year it’s around.

Answer 2

My husband is sixth cousin 4x removed.

Answer 3

1st Cousin, 7x

My 5th Great Grandmother was his first cousin.

Margaret Legrand (nee Hanks) > Sophia Conway (nee Legrand) > Stephen S Conway > Stella Degonia (nee Conway) > Nora Meador (nee Degonia) > William Meador Sr > William Meader Jr > Myself

Comments

Turns out that my wife is also related, being 3rd cousins 6 times removed.

Answer 4

I'm 8th cousin 4x removed....lol

Answer 5

I'm also 9th cousin 4x removed to Mary Todd.

Answer 6

Abraham Lincoln is my 2nd cousin 4 x removed.  My 2nd Great-grandmother Martha Hanks Bartlett is his 2nd cousin.

Answer 7

He is my 6th cousin 7 times removed on through my maternal grandfather.

He and my husband are 18th cousins twice removed (wow - guess you could say they are barely related?)

Answer 8

I am possibly but haven't totally checked it out. I do have a Taylor connection. Dr. James Taylor (1610-1654) is my 9th great grandfather. Capt. Thomas Taylor (1574-1618) is my 10th great grandfather. Rowland Taylor (1510-1555) is my 12th great grandfather.

Answer 9

9th 5x through common ancestor Lincoln-368.

Answer 10

I have a connection to the Lincoln family in New England, and my family always thought we were related to Honest Abe.  However I no longer think I am, and I don’t think any of you are either.  Unless you have Hanks ancestry. There is a lot of mythology about the man who may have been our greatest president.   There are some truths we may never know, as I don’t believe there are any descendants who can give us the dna.  

People who knew Lincoln, like his law partner and biographer, were complicit in keeping the question of his legitimacy out of the public knowledge. This was a coverup that Lincoln required to participate in national politics.  Lincoln himself made some reference to it, with a statement about poverty.   The illegitimacy on the Hanks side is known, but the Enloe tale is not as known.  Nancy Hanks was the servant girl of a man named Abraham Enloe.  He got her pregnant.  His wife was not happy and got Nancy out of the house. Abraham Enloe paid a lowlife named Lincoln to marry Nancy and raise her son as his.  Enloe was tall and was a southern patrician. He was intelligent and was involved with local politics.  Lincoln the stepfather was short, illiterate, and of low intellectual ability.  He treated his stepson with contempt and hired him out for chores.   Which of those two men sounds like Our President’s father.  Since I read this story ( and saw a picture of one of Enloe’s sons, who had the same body shape as the president), I have always been sure that Abraham Lincoln was an Enloe.

Comments

Woah, this is news to me, as I have never heard anything about Abraham being another man’s child! Ironically, I’ve gotten comments all my life about my “high cheekbones,” “serious expression” and “deep set eyes,” and I attributed them to the “Lincoln genes.”

So, if it’s true that Abraham Enloe was Abe’s biological father, would that mean that I no longer have a blood connection to him? His (supposed) Lincoln 4th great grandparents (Samuel and Martha Lyford Lincoln) are my 8th great grandparents.

Thank you for bringing this to light.

Answer 11

I am related. Richard Whitman|Whitman-94 was the 6th great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, and the 10th great-grandfather of me|David-2121

Answer 12

6th cousins 5x removed

Answer 13

I am related to Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks. We are third cousins once removed descended from William Hanks Sr., her second g-grandfather. Her mother Lucey (Hanks) Sparrow was unmarried when she was born. It is complicated to say the least. Abraham Lincoln is my 4th cousin 3 times removed. Both descended from William Hanks Sr.

Answer 14

My grandmother told us we were the 7th cousins of president Abraham Lincoln.

Dennis Crawford

BibleTruths@hotmail.com

Answer 15

I am 5th cousins, 4 times removed