Arlene Eakle’s Kentucky Blog

As part of my Genealogy News Sheet and my focus on genealogy evidence in that newsletter, there are 123 Posts on Kentucky or which include Kentucky in the sources described. 

If you type Kentucky into the Google search screen on my Genealogy Blog Home page, Google will list the 123 posts for you.  You can then choose by subject what I have already written.

My current publications list includes 3 Kentucky volumes–1) Kentucky Stations and Forts with name lists of early settlers; and 2) Early Marriages (before 1800) with maps and other Kentucky goodies.  And a NEW research guide to TN and KY:  Twin Gateways to the South.  I am also working on a Volume 3–watch for its announcement.

I do enough professional research in Kentucky that I have months of stuff to share with you–stuff that will make the difference with your hardest-to-find ancestors.  Stuff taken from the original manuscript records and printed sources currently available for Kentucky genealogy.

These research materials are aids to finding the birthplaces of ancestors where the census says only “Kentucky.”  Good searching.  And please stay tuned.  Your favorite Kentucky genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://www.arleneeakle.com

PS  The challenge of connecting your ancestors from Kentucky into VA, MD, NC, SC, and PA just got easier!

As Adin Baber dug deeper! His research into the Hanks family eventually located the family Bible of “A. Lincoln, Springfield IL.”  There for all the world, and especially us, to see are the origins of Nancy Hanks:

Nancy Hanks, born 5 Feb 1784, Campbell County VA; died 5 Oct 1818.  Father:  Abraham Hanks.  Mother:  Sarah Harper.  She was the 6th child and only girl.  Her five older brothers were Abraham Hanks, Luke Hanks, William Hanks, George Hanks, and Fielding Hanks.

Nancy married Thomas Lincoln, 12 June 1806.  She was the mother of three children:  Sarah Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Thomas Lincoln.

Some years ago, a woman contacted me to connect her ancestor Sarah Hanks, to Nancy Hanks, the mother of  President Lincoln.  Her family tradition said they were sisters.  That is when I discovered Adin Baber and his work.

I went carefully through the many papers he collected, with the possibility that her Sarah Hanks was a cousin to Nancy and I suggested several searches that might prove the connection to be true.  Never heard the final results of the research–most of the time I don’t hear the results.

Just remember that when you dig deeper you have the greatest chance of finding the truth.  Bernie Gracey says, “The TRUTH is out there.  You just have to locate it.”  Your favorite Kentucky genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://www.arleneeakle.com

PS  Review Part I of I, Too, Am a Kentuckian, for a discussion of the Nancys and the research that Adin Baber did.  Reference to the family Bible is buried in the fine print of Nancy Hanks:  The Destined Mother of a President–The Factual Story of a Pioneer Family as Revealed in an Exhaustive Study of Ancestral History. Printed for the author, Kansas IL 1963.

“I, too, am a Kentuckian,” Abraham Lincoln, born 12 Feb 1809, near Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky.

Most people do not write their own epitaphs.  The genealogical data and the verse on the tombstone art are submitted or chosen by relatives, friends, employees, government officials, cemetery personnel, or by well meaning historians and archivists.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died 5 Oct 1818, age 35 years.  She is buried on Little Pigeon’s Creek, Spencer County, Indiana.  Her tombstone was placed their in 1879 by “a friend of her martyred son.” [A photo of the tombstone is in my possession. AE]

According to Olivia Coolidge, in her The Apprenticeship of Abraham Lincoln (New York:  Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974), little is known of Nancy’s genealogy.   Little is known of Nancy herself:

In 1806 Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks, who is said to have been able to read the Bible, though this seems unlikely, as she could not sign her name on documents…  It was Nancy who seized every chance to send her children to school. (p.3)

Of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, we can only say that she was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and probably illegitimate.  In any case, nothing definite is known about her father… Nancy Lincoln was dead so long before anyone cared to recall her that descriptions of her appearance differ widely. (p.2)

The pioneer farmers who built Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois left their dead behind them as they moved on, generally finding little to say to their sons about their forebears.  (p.2)

Too many genealogies are compiled without enough thorough research into family and home sources.  We pay lip service to the importance of this evidence, we make inquiries among those relatives we know, then we spend the rest of our time searching public records, trying to make the data fit what we think is true.  If we expended some effort to track down relatives unknown to us, who also have family resources and knowledge to share, we could resolve a lot of the missing data on our pedigrees.  And we could gather the documentation to prove the lineages.

Adin Baber, himself a Hanks descendant, devoted many years of his life tracking and interviewing Hanks descendants.  His list of relatives he personally talked to takes up several pages in his books on Nancy Hanks:

Nancy Hanks of Undistinguished Families:  A Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical Study of the Ancestry of the Mother of Abraham Lincoln. Kansas, IL:  by the author, 1960.

Nancy Hanks.  The Destined Mother of a President:  The Factual Story of a Pioneer Family as Revealed in an Exhaustive Study of Ancestoral History. Kansas IL:  by the author, 1963.  Sold exclusively by the Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale CA (now located in Spokane WA).

When Baber began his research, there were many traditions and a substantial number of claims for “the Nancys” as he calls them.  He carefully tracked each Nancy and eliminated them one by one until there was only one left:

1. Nancy Hanks, known as Calhoun’s Nancy.  Daughter of Luke and Ann Hanks, born 10 Feb 1787 in South Carolina.  She died between 1833-1838.  Married to Mr. South, lived sometime in TN.
2. Nancy Hanks, known as Abraham Enloe’s Nancy.  Daughter of William Hanks, born about 1800 in Rutherford County NC.  Had an uncle Dickey.  Bore a son to Abraham Enloe about 1818,  also named Abraham.
3. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of Argyle Hanks and his wife Frances Hargrove, born 5 Feb 1784, Granville County NC.  Hanks family originally from Virginia.  Strong tradition of being Lincoln’s mother.  She died unmarried in 1804, Granville NC.
4. Nancy Hanks, Dennis Friend Hanks’ Nancy.  Daughter of Joseph Hanks, born in Virginia.  Family moved to Nelson County KY.  Unwed mother of Dennis Friend Hanks, 1799.  Married Levy Hall.  Knew Thomas Lincoln; her son Squire Hall married the daughter of Sallie Bush Johnson, 2nd wife of Thomas Lincoln and step-mother of President Lincoln.  These people are buried beside Nancy Hanks Lincoln in Indiana.  [Coolidge quotes the 70-year-old Dennis Hanksas a cousin to President Lincoln in her work.]
5. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of Mott Hanks and his wife Mary, born 21 June 1780, Dobbs County NC.  This Nancy had a sister Lucy.  The family later moved to Texas where this Nancy Hanks died.
6. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of Fleetwood and Ruth Hanks, born in Loudoun County, Virginia.  She married 1) Enoch Holdron in 1805; 2) Frank DeMar.  She died 1870 in Phillips County AR.
7. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of Jemima Hanks.  This Nancy married Peter Jones 16 Apr 1804, Henry County KY.
8. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of William Hanks and Elizabeth Hall, born 13 Jan 1794, Kentucky.  Married William Miller.  Wove cloth for President Lincoln.  Her grandfather was Joseph Hanks.
9. Nancy Hanks.  Daughter of Joshua Hanks and Polly Renwick, born 30 Dec 1812.  Married William Morris, and had 9 children.  Died 17 Mar 1901, Sunbright TN.
10. Nancy Jane Hanks.  No details available, just the tradition that she belonged to the Hanks family.
11. Nancy Hanks resided with the Richard Berry, Sr. family.  Born ca. 1783 in Virginia.  Married Thomas Lincoln and died of milk fever, 5 Oct 1818, Spencer County IN.

All of the known Nancy Hanks who were born in the 1780’s and possibly could have married Thomas Lincoln–all are eliminated as candidates except one, and the nominated one fulfills all the requirements, viz:  She was born in Virginia, of a family of Hanks, she was an orphan and came to Kentucky with some of her kinfolks and not with her parents; she probably lived with the Richard Berry, Sr. family and with the Richard Berry, Jr. family.  She was kin to the Thompson family and to the Mitchell family, and a descendant of the Shipley family, and she did Marry Tom Lincoln. Adin Baber, Nancy Hanks of Distinguished Families, pp. 70-71.

Baber’s work is a model study in thorough home source research.  For there is no substitute for family knowledge–who actually married whom and what happened to them.  During the course of his research he collected family tradition and stories and published these accounts himself.

Nancy’s Portrait

From the various descriptions of Nancy, carried in the hearts of her descendants, a modern artist was commissioned to paint a portrait of the President’s mother in 1963.  Several people described her hands, jaw, ears, and eyes as being very like her son’s.  The collective family memory said she looked like Abe, only with long hair tied back in a bun. And that is how he painted her.

Photographs of the portrait were pasted on the fly leaf of Baber’s book.

For readers interested in any of the Nancy Hanks and their backgrounds, with the documentation to support Baber’s conclusions,there is a large cache of genealogy evidence awaiting you:

1. Baber’s notes and papers are deposited in the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield IL at the Old State House.
2. The portrait of Nancy Hanks was in the possession of Nancy Baber McNeil, Box 394, Kansas IL 61933.
3. Seattle Public Library. There is also a very large collection of research notes and correspondence on the Hanks and Lincoln ancestry in the Seattle Public Library, 5th and Spring Street, Seattle WA.  Baber’s sister moved to Seattle to live with her daughter.  After her death, the daughter gave the rest of the archives to the public library Genealogy Room.

All of Baber’s research was completed before Olivia Coolidge wrote her book.   To my knowledge, no one researching Abraham Lincoln has consulted this  family data.  So the ancestral proof that did come from President Lincoln’s direct kinfolks is little known.

Family tradition and lore are alive and well in Kentucky.  To compile a Kentucky lineage without combing these resources seems folly to me.  Break your losing streak!  Your favorite Kentucky genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://www.arleneeakle.com

Official launch of Kentucky Genealogy Blog–19 June 2009

Kentucky is a major genealogical research challenge:

1. Vital records you usually search first to complete a family sheet are not kept consistently–birth records begin in the 1840’s with big gaps in coverage.  Marriage records have been lost in the many courthouse fires.  The wills that do survive are scattered–with some original wills filed at the State Archives in alphabetical “family files” instead of in the courthouse where you might expect to find them.  Wills transferring real estate to churches were often given to the church and ended up wherever the church records were deposited.  And cemetery graveyards mark burials with field stones that carry no inscription.
2. Migration patterns may run north and south instead of east to west to follow rivers, relationships of people, and boundaries of militia and church districts.  During the Indian wars and the Civil War (referred to on the ground as the War Between the States), the settlers moved out of harm’s way depending upon where the fighting occurred.  Settlers were recalled during the Revolutionary War into Southside Virginia or east of the Great Valley of Virginia.  So, identifying counties of residence during these turbulent times takes special indexes and careful study of maps for each specific time period.
3. Settlers came from New York and New England states as well as the South.  Surnames are not helpful in locating origins since they could come from anywhere.  This requires more research in local sources and family and local histories to ensure you follow the right kinship networks and lineages.
4. Field research in Kentucky is recommended for tough research problems–so you can study the lay of the land and the local resources in libraries and archives.  These research challenges cannot be resolved from printed books that have been reprinted on internet sites alone.
5. Special collections along migration paths and interviews with living descendants still living on the family land are quite helpful–Kentucky is still primarily rural and modern development has not eradicated evidence you need.  Budget cuts have shortened public hours in research facilities–so careful planning, in advance, is also necessary.
6. Local used bookstores often have original records–diaries, court minute books, family Bibles as well as books printed long ago.
7. Local genealogy societies have published surviving county records for many years–shelves and shelves of them.  Some are little-known and often unsearched by todays genealogists who seek quick answers from the internet.

This Kentucky blog will address all of these research concerns and apply their solutions to actual pedigrees.  This is not a blog for the faint-hearted.  Nor for a quick and easy answer.  This blog will consider hard-core  genealogy research on pedigrees that have been stopped dead for years.

At last, there will be some answers based on actual research experience–not text-book reviews–although there will be many of those for you to look at.

When your email tells you another Kentucky blog has arrived.  Halt what you are doing.  Close the drapes.  Turn off the phone.  Put a warning sign out for “quiet…genealogist at work.”  And read the entry.  I promise your time will be well-spent.

Your Kentucky Research Specialist, Arlene Eakle http://www.arleneeakle.com

PS  Check out my NEW Home Page–easier to navigate and find stuff.  There will be lots of good research and genealogy stuff to study.  Remember that it is a work in progress for the next several weeks.