Lincoln's birthday

[RJNorton]

She did that repeatedly.

The 1860 census lists her as 35 years old!

https://www.archives.gov/research/census...ncoln.html

So she aged only 7 years 1850-1860!

[Steve]

Typically a sheriff would deputize somebody and they would go house to house taking the census. The date on the 1850 census is November 7th, so if he was on the circuit then presumably Mary would have given the information. If he was home, they could've given the census taker the information together.

[RJNorton]

It's too bad the 1840 census does not include Lincoln. I would be curious what it would have said about his age.

(see Glomfeld's question about 3/4 of the way down the page)

The information there seems to indicate Lincoln is in the 1830 census; he was living near Decatur in Macon County. Does anyone know if that is online?

[Steve]

1810 census (male under 10 living with his father):
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH2C-36C

1830 census (one of the two 20-30 yro males living with his father):
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHPY-VF5

[Eva Elisabeth]

If he was home, they could've given the census taker the information together.

My question - would honest Abe Lincoln have let Mary cheat about documentary, "legal" data in his attendance?

[Steve]

My question - would honest Abe Lincoln have let Mary cheat about documentary, "legal" data in his attendance?

I think it's a big who cares. Would he really contradict his wife in company if he was there at the time?

[Eva Elisabeth]

The other way round - would his wife have dared to lie in his attendance?
As for the circuit - he returned Nov.5.:
www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1850-11-05&r=L0NhbGVuZGFyWWVhci5hc3B4P3llYXI9MTg1MCZyPUwwTmhiR1Z1WkdGeUxtRnpjSGc9
He may have yet been absent, at his office or elsewhere. I doubt the lie would have been "pulled through" in his attendance.

[Gene C]

I think it's a big who cares. Would he really contradict his wife in company if he was there at the time?

Not if he knew what was good for him

[Eva Elisabeth]

My question - would honest Abe Lincoln have let Mary cheat about documentary, "legal" data in his attendance?

I think it's a big who cares. Would he really contradict his wife in company if he was there at the time?

I personally think in case he witnessed he would have sought a tactful/diplomatic way - accompanying the census taker to the front door and quietly ask him to correct.

[Eva Elisabeth]

It just hit me to check the marriage certificate - no dates of birth either.

I still find this a very good and valid question - how do we evidently know of the date of birth respectively how was the information preserved and carried on in an illiterate world at the frontier till Abraham Lincoln was old enough to memorize himself?
Not that I mean to compare but I've serveral times experienced that new refugee students from somewhere in Africa or Mid-East didn't know their date of birth (nor their illiterate parents) and couldn't say more than "sometime ten or eleven yrs ago".

[Steve]

Here's another question, why doesn't the Bible record have any information on Lincoln's sons? He couldn't have written it earlier than 1851 but it doesn't have any birth information on Robert, Eddie, or Willie; or record Eddie's death.

[RJNorton]

I don't know, but the Lincoln family Bible (now in the LOC) includes the birth dates of the four sons in Abraham's handwriting (as well as the death date of Eddie).

[Steve]

I don't know, but the Lincoln family Bible (now in the LOC) includes the birth dates of the four sons in Abraham's handwriting (as well as the death date of Eddie).

All the names Abraham Lincoln wrote in his father' s Bible relate to his stepmother. It's missing his brother Thomas who died as an infant and his children whom he never brought to meet his stepmother. Maybe Lincoln just copied the record from a Johnston family member who didn't have that information.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I don't know, but the Lincoln family Bible (now in the LOC) includes the birth dates of the four sons in Abraham's handwriting (as well as the death date of Eddie).

All the names Abraham Lincoln wrote in his father' s Bible relate to his stepmother. It's missing his brother Thomas who died as an infant and his children whom he never brought to meet his stepmother. Maybe Lincoln just copied the record from a Johnston family member who didn't have that information.

Not all names are Johnson-related, his mother Nancy and sister Sarah aren't. However, it does seem Johnson-oriented, and it is strange, Robert wasn't mentioned. No date past 1851. Did A. L.'s stepmother inherit and keep the bible?

[RJNorton]

Eva, the National Park Service used to have a web page on the Bible, but I cannot find it anymore. So I checked the Internet Archive and found an old copy of this page. It covers the route the Bible has followed:

http://wayback.archive.org/web/200607131...biblej.htm