Nancy Hanks' lineage

[RJNorton]

I do not know the veracity of all this, but here is how Francis Marion Van Natter described Reverend Elkins in his book entitled Lincoln's Boyhood:

"Preacher Elkins entered the Pigeon Creek-Buck Horn Valley community riding a sorrel horse and smoking a pipe. He had ridden a hundred miles across Kentucky's open country and through Indiana's wilderness. Now past forty and weighing two hundred pounds, Dave Elkins didn't pay much attention to the appearance of his long, red hair and longer red whiskers. In his youth he was so wild he had been nicknamed Devil Dave. He had been a rip-roaring fiddler and a hearty whiskey drinker. People said he could lick his weight in wildcats and never bat an eye. He couldn't read, but recognized the letter "O" because it was round. At twenty-two he "got religion." Devil Dave took up preaching and you could hear him for a quarter of a mile, according to Dennis Hanks."