Nancy Hanks' lineage

[Steve Whitlock]

[quote='RJNorton' pid='53361' dateline='1446634384']
"I sure agree with Gene that it is confusing."

Perhaps I can help with any confusion re: the Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtdna study for the maternal line of President Abraham Lincoln.

Mitochondrial dna (mtdna) was acquired from the maternal lines of 2 known daughters of Joseph Hanks and Ann "Nannie" (Lee) Hanks. They are Mary "Polly" (Hanks) Friend, wife of Jesse Friend, and Nancy Hanks Hall, wife of Levi Hall and mother of Dennis Friend Hanks (due to an out of wedlock relationship prior to her marriage to Levi Hall with Charles Friend, who fathered other out-of-wedlock children with other young women as well).

Another thought to be daughter of Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee is Lucy (Hanks) Sparrow, wife of Henry Sparrow) who was also thought to be the mother of Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln and Sarah Hanks (aka Sally Sparrow).

Mtdna was provided from the maternal line for Sophia (Hanks) Lynch-Legrand and Margaret (Hanks) Legrand, both daughters of Sarah Hanks. Additionally, mtdna was sought from 2 daughters of Lucy Hanks Sparrow, Margaret (Sparrow) Ingram and Lucinda (Sparrow) Richardson-Campbell. The Lucinda Sparrow mtna kit was slow in being returned and has not yet been processed. However, an earlier independent study found that two daughters of Lucy Hanks Sparrow (Mary Ann (Sparrow) Whitehouse and Elizabeth Sparrow were both from the rare X1c haplogroup, as well as a descendant of Sophia (Hanks) Lynch-Legrand, also X1c.

Since so many people followed Hitchcock and Warren with the Shipley ancestry they felt was due to Lucy (Shipley) Hanks, a sister of Rachel (Shipley) Berry and Naomi (Shipley) Mitchell (the line for Charlotte Vawter), mtdna was also taken from the maternal lines of Naomi and Rachel. Both of those lines proved a perfect match to each other; however, they were both haplogroup H, whereas Lucy Hanks' maternal line is X1c, ergo, Lucy is NOT Lucy Shipley Hanks, or she would have been haplogroup H as well.

With the maternal line of Lucy Hanks Sparrow being an mtdna match to the maternal line of Mary "Polly" (Hanks) Friend and Nancy (Hanks) Hall we can safely predict that they are closely related, likely sisters, as stated by Dennis Friend Hanks. Also, that Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln and Sarah Hanks were sisters or half-sisters with the same mother, thereby making Sophia (Hanks) Lynch-Legrand a first cousin of President Lincoln, and sustaining that John "The Railsplitter" Hanks was also a first cousin, since his father, William Hanks, was a brother to Mary Hanks Friend, Nancy Hanks Hall and Lucy Hanks Sparrow.

At this point, while dreading introduction of more confusion, I must say there is a possibility that Lucy Hanks was raised by Joseph and Ann (Lee) Hanks, but her parents COULD have been Thomas Hanks and Elizabeth Lee. Thomas Hanks is a brother of Joseph Hanks, and Elizabeth (Lee) Hanks was a sister of Ann "Nannie" (Lee) Hanks. There is some evidence that Elizabeth Lee Hanks may have been deceased by 1769, and Thomas Hanks possibly circa 1783. They are of record in the NFPR (North Farnham Parish Register) as having a daughter, Nansy (sic) Hanks born in 1766, and nothing further is known of her. Could she have been Lucy Hanks, who also appears to have been born ca 1766-67? It is also possible that Thomas and Elizabeth had another daughter before 1769 who could have been Lucy, who was not shown in the NFPR. Only one of the many children of Joseph and Ann is shown in the NFPR, that being Elizabeth Hanks, who married Thomas Sparrow, brother of Henry Sparrow.

Elizabeth (Lee) Hanks would have had the same mtdna as her sister, Ann (Lee) Hanks, which is the only reason I allow for the possibility. At this time there is nothing to substantiate such speculation; however, should further records be found some day to prove said speculation on my part, then allowance was made for that eventuality. Otherwise, based on what we know today, Lucy Hanks was a fourth daughter of Joseph and Ann Hanks, just as Dennis Friend Hanks said she was.

There's a lot to digest here, so don't hesitate to ask me for further clarification. It hasn't come up, but Abraham Hanks and Sarah Harper, as mentioned by Adin Baber, were NOT the parents of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, for more reasons than I care to go into while discussing the Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtdna Project, my main concern in this post.