Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy 200th Birthday, Cousin Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born on 12 February 1809 in what is now LaRue County, Kentucky, to Thomas and Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln. He was descended from Samuel Lincoln, an early settler in Hingham, Massacvhusetts Bay Colony in the 1630's.

I looked on Rootsweb WorldConnect to see if I could a well-sourced database containing Abraham Lincoln's ancestry. There were quite a few entries for him, and several seemed to have more information than some of the others. But I could not find any that I "trust" there. There is a nice looking ancestral chart for Abraham Lincoln here, but I don't know how "right" it is.

My next stop was to look in the book Ancestors of American Presidents, compiled by Gary Boyd Roberts and published by the Carl Boyer 3rd, Santa Clarity, California in 1989 (the preliminary edition, revised). There is a fairly extensive ancestry for Abraham Lincoln, going back through Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts for the Lincoln line and several collateral lines. Perhaps the latest edition of this work has a more extensive genealogy than was known 20 years ago.

The couple that caught my eye in the book were #142 Obadiah Holmes and his wife, #143 Katherine Hyde. I have them too!!!

The Abraham Lincoln line from Obadiah and Katherine (Hyde) Holmes is:

1. Obadiah Holmes (1610-1682) married Katherine Hyde.
2. Lydia Holmes (????-1>1693) married John Bowne (1630-1684)
3. Sarah Bowne (1669->1714) married Richard Salter (????->1728)
4. Hannah Salter (????-1727) married Mordecai Lincoln (1686-1736)
5. John Lincoln (1716-1788) married Rebecca Flowers (1720-1806)
6. Abraham Lincoln (1744-1786) married Bathsheba Herring (?) (1750-1836)
7. Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851) married Nancy Hanks (1784-1818)
8. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) married Mary Todd (1818-1882)

My own descent from Obadiah and Katherine (Hyde) Holmes is:

1. Obadiah Holmes (1610-1682) married Katherine Hyde.
2. Mary Holmes (1632->1690) married John Brown (1630-1706)
3. Sarah Brown (1662-1733) married John Pray (1653-1733)
4. Richard Pray (1683-1753) married Rachel --?-- (????-1755)
5. Sarah Pray (1734-1819) married Nathaniel Horton (1730-1819)
6. Phebe Horton (1772-????) married Simon Wade (1767-1857)
7. Miranda Wade (1804-1850) married Jonathan White (1806-1850)
8. Henry A. White (1824-1885) married Amy Oatley (1826-1867)
9. Julia White (1848-1913) married Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
10. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) married Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942)
11. Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983) married Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)
12. Randall J. Seaver - moi!

More detail on my ancestry is on my web site at www.genealogy.com/users/s/e/a/Randy-Seaver/ - see the file for Ancestors of Alma Bessie Richmond.

Of course, all of the above assumes that there no non-paternity events in either of the ancestral lines above - what are the odds of that? Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln had no male-line descendants past his sons, who bore no sons of their own. Therefore, there is no Y-DNA available to compare to other Lincoln descendants from Abe's male-line Lincolns. A pity, that.

So it appears that Abraham Lincoln and I are 6th cousins 4 times removed. Cool! I didn't know that until today! What does it mean? In reality, not much. We shared a small percentage of common genes (probably the beard...). It's a great conversation starter, though!

One of Lincoln's famous quotes is about family history:

" I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."

So - a toast to Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States. Born to humble beginnings; rose to the highest office in the land through hard work and persistence, not to mention executive skills; struck down just at the pinnacle of hard-earned success. We will never know how the country would have been different if he had lived out his full measure of years.

10 comments:

atss said...

Mr. Seaver,

I found your writing very interesting. I am your 10th cousin, once removed. Abraham Lincon is my 6th cousin also, thru Obadiah Holmes and Katherine Holmes. Their daughter Martha is my 10th Great Grandmother.

John Adams is more closely related to me than any of the presidents, he is my 3rd cousin, 7 times removed.

God Bless you,

Cousin Donald L Wallo

Anonymous said...

kewlio Im Abraham Lincoln & George Washingtons cousin

jay beacham said...

I like the way you write and find your lines very interesting as I go back to Obidiah too.
Jay Beacham

jay beacham said...

Mr. Seaver,
Fascinating info.
Which Mayflower folks do you hail from? Mine are William Brewster, Francis Cook, George Soule.I find that most Americans would be surprised to know how many have roots back to the Mayflower passengers of 1620.
In regards to Obadiah Holmes, my line goes back to Martha Holmes, daughter of Obadiah and Katherine.
So glad you did this about Mr.A. Lincoln.
Jay Beacham

Anonymous said...

Abe is my 2nd cousin 5 generations removed. His great grand parents, Robert Shipley and Sarah Dunn, is where I came from.

Mike

Model on a Bottle (tm) said...

It's very nice to meet you Cousin :) Our very large family is also related to President Abraham Lincoln through Lydia Lincoln the Daughter of Virginia John Lincoln who married Benjamin Bryan. There Daughter Hannah Bryan married Henry McDaniel. Hannah was a first cousin once removed. We all are First Cousins with each generation removed after that.

Unknown said...

I am President Lincoln's 2nd Cousin, 6x removed. Mordecai Lincoln II (1686 - 1736) was president Lincoln's great grandfather and he is my 7th great grandfather (from Mordecai's 2nd wife, Mary Robeson). I am trying to find other living direct descendants of Samuel Lincoln (1622), our first ancestor to settle in America.

Collateral Lincoln said...

There are innumerable collateral descendants, and some have extensive primary source documentation and generational family records. Abraham Lincoln's 2X great grandfather is Mordecai Lincoln, Jr., who is also my 6X great grandfather (3rd cousin 4X removed on a consanguinity chart, I believe). Samuel Lincoln's direct descendants married into the Mudd family (Dr. Samuel D. Mudd who treated John Wilkes Booth in stage disguise after the assassination/consult "The Mudd Family of the United States" by Richard D. Mudd, MD/my father and the author corresponded with each other in the 70's), the Paul Revere family at least twice (consult "The Old Meeting House Hingham 200th Anniversary 1681-1881"), and the Daniel Boone family two or three times (numerous sources).

P. Lincoln

Unknown said...

If you think you might have ancestry with Abraham, look into the following book for a common ancestor: https://archive.org/details/historyoflincoln00illinc

This is where I found my great grandfather, Winfield-Scott Lincoln (b. 1900), and his relationship to Samuel Lincoln and Abraham.

james said...

Abe's grandfather was Abraham Lincoln SR.MY line is Abraham SR. Josiah,Tom Lincoln's Bother.next Jacob Lincoln ,ABE'S first cousin.Next Joseph Armstrong LINCOLN Jacob's son .Joseph daughter MINNIE E. Lincoln[married Edmonson]was my great grandmother. I'm a first cousin 6 generations removed.