Adin Baber on Nancy Hanks

[Steve Whitlock]

(09-26-2020 08:47 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(09-23-2020 12:41 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Steve,

is this the DNA project that has been mentioned previously? https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Han...ction=news

Yes it is, its current website is here, though:

https://geneticlincoln.com/

Steve,

I am the Steve that Gene was questioning. Thank you for covering, but I had responded, and later deleted a few posts in this thread pertaining to Adin Baber, Ida Tarbell and Caroline Hitchcock. They were deleted because anger and frustration took my objectivity, and left curt, shallow responses that were unfair to anyone who might read them.

Adin Baber, it appears, had Hanks relatives in the Edgar Co., IL area, that he must have grown up believing were close relatives of President Lincoln. His Nancy Hanks was a daughter of Abraham Hanks Sr, and a wife he mistakenly thought was Sarah Harper.

Mr. Baber traversed the country in search of records, but along the way he missed The Dumfries Store Ledger in Prince William Co., VA. Listed in the Ledger are entries for Abraham and Alexander Hanks, sons of Robert Million. A look at the original records shows that there was only Abraham Hanks as a son-in-law of Robert and Keziah (Halliday) Million. Abraham was married to Jemima Million, who may be found on Pg62 of "Nancy Hanks of Undistinguished Families" by Adin Baber. The original record also supports that Jemima (Million) Hanks, widow of Abraham Hanks Sr, was the mother of Nancy Hanks, who married Peter Jones 16 Apr 1804 in Henry Co., KY. The bondsman was Abner Ford, the nephew of Jemima, and son of Sytha or Cynthia (Million) Ford.

As for Sarah Harper, she may have been the first wife of Abraham Hanks Jr, who also married Mary Combs as his 2nd wife. Fielding Hanks' death record names his parents as Abraham Hanks and Sarah Hanks. She is likely the reason for Sarah Harper being named as the wife of Abraham Hanks Sr, because Mr. Baber mistakenly shows Fielding, and his brother, George Hanks, as sons of Abraham Sr, rather than Abraham Jr. I have census records, etc to follow all that, or one can get Nancy Royce's document from Genetic Lincoln for Abraham Hanks.

Adin also confuses Sarah Hanks, as being a Mary and Sarah Hanks who changes her name, and is the daughter of Abraham Hanks Sr, whereas the Nancy Hanks Lincoln MTDNA Study shows her to be the daughter of Lucy Hanks; however, he has a nice listing for the children of Sarah Hanks, aka Sally Sparrow in a court record.

Mr. Baber also has some information that would have benefited Caroline Hitchcock and Ida Tarbell, preceded by the marriage of Nancy Hanks and Levi Hall.

Nancy Hanks
in the Kentucky, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850
Name: Nancy Hanks
Marriage Date: 18 Oct 1802
Marriage Place: Green, Kentucky, USA
Spouse: Levi Harrel [Levi Hall]
*********************************
"Certainly, as Barton has said, in his discussion about Dennis
and his family, "is that he should have known his own mother", and
Dennis said that his own mother was Nancy Hanks, wife of Levi Hall,
and he recognized the Hall boys as half-brothers. He named Charles
Friend to be his father, and wrote, "This don't doubt. He did not
know his own grandfather on his mother's side. He asserted that Lucy
Sparrow was his aunt, and Abe Lincoln's grandmother, and insisted that
she was a sister of his mother, Nancy, and her two sisters, Polly
Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow."

The quote is from pg356 of Baber's book already referenced. On pg57 Baber identifies Nancy Hanks, mother of Dennis Friend Hanks, and wife of Levi Hall, as the daughter of Joseph Hanks Sr, who died 1793 in Nelson Co., KY.

Take note of "sister of his mother, Nancy, and her two sisters, Polly
Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow." Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow are also mentioned by Judge Creal and Peggy Walters, as well as by Dennis Hanks, as being aunts of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and present when Abraham Lincoln was born. If they are aunts then we have corroboration that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was a niece of Nancy Hanks Hall, and that Lucy Hanks was a sister of Nancy Hall, Polly Friend and Elizabeth Sparrow.

In defense of Caroline Hitchcock and Ida Tarbell I should discuss a very pertinent misdirection given by some folks who certainly should have known better. I refer to the wife and son of Jacob Vertrees Hanks, the eldest child of Joseph Hanks Jr. Mrs Elizabeth (Adams) Hanks, widow of Jacob Vertrees Hanks, and her son, school superintendent, Jacob McKendree Hanks, both wrote letters naming Nancy Hanks Lincoln, (niece of Joseph Hanks) as his sister instead. It seems they were unaware of Nancy Hanks Hall, possibly due to her early death from milk sickness. To make it worse they also claimed that Elizabeth's father, Green Adams, was a cousin of John Quincy Adams. Both were from MA, but do not appear to be related.

Martha Ann (Hanks) Wilson, a sister of Jacob McKendree Hanks, became the superintendent of schools after her brother died in 1901, and she had a little better knowledge of Joseph's sisters, but got Lucy Hanks and Ann Lee confused.

"Mrs. M. A. Wilson notes in her statements. “The mother of Joseph Hanks was Lucy Lee of Virginia.” “Joseph Hanks also told my mother that his sisters married Levi Hall, Jesse Friend and Thomas Sparrow."

In 1925 Ida Tarbell wanted to get a sworn statement from Jacob McKendree Hanks, but seems to not have known he passed away in 1901.

There is much, much, much more, but my general summation is that Adin Baber has some useful information; HOWEVER, the reader must have a comfortable knowledge of the correct lineages for the Hanks, Sparrows, Lincolns, et al to discern the truth. Most readers will not, and have not, (as evidenced by a plethora of incorrect family trees), such knowledge.

Steve Whitlock