Adin Baber on Nancy Hanks

[Rob Wick]

One of the issues Tarbell studied was the question surrounding Nancy Hank's alleged illegitimacy. Tarbell at first praised Carolyn Hanks Hitchcock's book Nancy Hanks: The Story of Abraham Lincoln's Mother but as the years passed, Tarbell slowly retreated from Hitchcock's story because her conclusions were ill-founded. Tarbell always urged those she worked with to write a genealogy of the Hanks family, but she demurred, saying she wasn't a genealogist.

In the 1950s, a central Illinois descendent of the Hanks family named Adin Baber wrote that genealogy. There are actually three volumes to Baber's work. First was The Hanks Family of Virginia and Westward which is a huge book that those who study genealogy would be familiar with. The second book, which is available at archive.org, is called Nancy Hanks, of Undistinguished Families. The third volume, which is a distillation of the previous two, is called Nancy Hanks: Destined Mother of a President. Given that all three were privately printed, they are extremely rare (with the exception of the second since it's online). Alibris has the third available for $99 or $175 or $689.

I took a research trip yesterday and photocopied the third book. According to the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop, it's on their list of essential Lincoln books and is the best book on Nancy Hanks, but I was curious as to whether anyone here is familiar with it, and if so, what do you think about it?

Baber's papers and his research material are in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Best
Rob