1860 Census and Phillip Dinkell

[maharba]

No. Not trying to prove or disprove his name was Abram. But it had looked like both the 1850 and 1840 enumerations gave him as ABRAM. And, many times I have seen men in genealogy to go both by Abram and Abraham. A similar I have noted is Joseph and Josiah used by the same men, throughout life. Now, it seems certain to me that the Hancock/Nauvoo ILL 1840 ABRAM Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln, an adult son of Mordecai. Mordecai was, if I remember right, a successful talented and admired uncle of (future president) Abraham Lincoln. The son Abraham (first cousin to pres Lincoln) seems almost unknown and untalked about. But he lived fairly long, married, had kids. When Abraham Lincoln come through Nauvoo in 1858 campaigning, that 1st cousin Abraham had already passed away a few years prior. I still wouldn't be surprised if Lincoln had gone by 'Abram' for a period of time, or even if he had a long forgotten middle name. As you say, the scribblings of Census Takers have always been notorious for spelling and misinformation, but Census also too have brought out long forgotten information, just when you least suspect it coming.

So no, 'renaming' Abraham Lincoln is not the purpose of my looking at Census. It's just a standard thing should be/should HAVE BEEN done for so celebrated a personality in history as Abraham Lincoln. An amusing aspect of researching Lincoln is that there has been a vast amount of intentional misinformation --large and small-- added about him. People claiming to be great friends or having had encounters with Lincoln, but which never took place.