Abraham Lincoln Family Tree

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and is consistently ranked among America's greatest presidents. His reputation rests primarily on leading the country through the Civil War, helping abolish slavery, and preserving the Union.

The Lincoln family's documented American ancestry begins with Samuel Lincoln, an immigrant from Norfolk, England. Samuel and his older brother Thomas moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.

Samuel Lincoln and his brother were Puritans who helped build the Old Ship Church in Massachusetts. The building remains the oldest church structure in the United States continuously used for Christian worship.

Samuel Lincoln's descendants established several politically influential branches of the family. One branch produced prominent Massachusetts politicians, while another eventually produced President Abraham Lincoln.

Levi Lincoln Sr. was a great-great-grandson of Samuel Lincoln and an influential Massachusetts lawyer during the Revolutionary period. He helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution and participated in a legal case that contributed to abolishing slavery in the state.

Levi Lincoln Sr. subsequently held important state and federal offices. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate before becoming United States Attorney General under President Thomas Jefferson.

Two sons of Levi Lincoln Sr. became governors and members of Congress. Levi Lincoln Jr. served as governor of Massachusetts, while his brother Enoch Lincoln became governor of Maine. Both also served in the United States House of Representatives.

President Abraham Lincoln descended from a different branch of Samuel Lincoln's family. The presenter traces this branch through five generations to Captain Abraham Lincoln, the future president's paternal grandfather and namesake.

Captain Abraham Lincoln served as a military captain in Virginia during the American Revolution. After the war, he relocated to Kentucky, which was still a frontier territory and had not yet achieved statehood.

Captain Lincoln settled in Kentucky during the period associated with frontiersman Daniel Boone. The presenter considers it highly probable that the two men knew each other, although he does not establish a documented personal relationship.

Captain Abraham Lincoln was killed by a Native American approximately five years after settling on the Kentucky frontier. The presenter describes the killing in the context of Native Americans defending their territory against expanding white settlement.

Thomas Lincoln, the president's father, was only eight years old when his father was killed. He was the youngest of three brothers and received none of his father's substantial estate, according to the presenter.

Thomas Lincoln never learned to read or write and struggled financially throughout much of his life. His lack of inherited property and formal education contributed to the difficult economic circumstances in which his children were raised.

Abraham Lincoln and his sister Sarah grew up in poverty. Their early childhood included living in a one-room log cabin, an experience that became an important part of Lincoln's biography.

Abraham Lincoln had a third sibling, a younger brother named Thomas, who died in infancy. The three children were born to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks.

Abraham Lincoln's maternal ancestry was historically uncertain because the parentage of Nancy Hanks was disputed. Nancy was also known as Nancy Sparrow because she was raised as the adopted daughter of Thomas Sparrow and Elizabeth Hanks.

One theory identified Nancy Hanks as the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks. Lucy was the sister of Nancy's adoptive mother, Elizabeth Hanks, and later married Henry Sparrow, the brother of Nancy's adoptive father, Thomas Sparrow.

Under the Lucy Hanks theory, Nancy was born before her mother's marriage to Henry Sparrow. This would make Lucy Hanks her biological mother and Henry Sparrow her later stepfather rather than her biological father.

A competing theory identified Nancy as the legitimate daughter of James Hanks and Lucy Shipley. James was the brother of Elizabeth Hanks and Lucy Hanks, making him another possible biological parent within the same extended family.

Both theories placed Nancy Hanks within the family of Joseph Hanks and Anne Lee. Under the first theory, Nancy inherited her Hanks ancestry through her mother, Lucy Hanks. Under the second, she inherited it through her proposed father, James Hanks.

The competing theories therefore differed over which side of Nancy's family carried the Hanks ancestry. Both identified a mother named Lucy and treated Joseph Hanks and Anne Lee as Nancy's biological grandparents.

Modern mitochondrial DNA analysis provided evidence favoring the Lucy Hanks theory. Researchers identified living women who could trace an uninterrupted female line back to Anne Lee, allowing comparison of DNA inherited through maternal ancestry.

Mitochondrial DNA is especially useful for tracing direct maternal ancestry because mothers transmit it to their children. People who share an uninterrupted maternal lineage can carry the same mitochondrial DNA signature across many generations.

By 2015, genetic research had identified Anne Lee's maternal lineage with the rare mitochondrial haplogroup X1c. The presenter identifies this discovery as a major development in resolving the uncertainty surrounding Nancy Hanks.

DNA attributed to Abraham Lincoln also reportedly belonged to mitochondrial haplogroup X1c. The presenter says the sample was recovered from Lincoln's blood on the chair he occupied when he was assassinated.

The matching mitochondrial DNA evidence strongly favors Lucy Hanks as Nancy Hanks's biological mother. Because Lincoln inherited mitochondrial DNA through his mother, the match supports an uninterrupted maternal line connecting him to Anne Lee.

The presenter concludes that Nancy Hanks was almost certainly born to Lucy Hanks outside marriage. This interpretation supports the first genealogical theory rather than the alternative involving James Hanks and Lucy Shipley.

The surname Lee raised a separate question about whether Abraham Lincoln was related to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lincoln's maternal ancestor Anne Lee belonged to a family carrying the same surname as the Confederate commander.

The presenter states that DNA research established that Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee did not share the suspected Lee family connection. Anne Lee belonged to a different Lee family from the one associated with the Confederate general.

Nancy Hanks died when Abraham Lincoln was nine years old. Her death occurred shortly after the Lincoln family relocated to Indiana.

Thomas Lincoln remarried approximately one year after Nancy Hanks's death. His second wife, Sarah Bush, became Abraham Lincoln's stepmother and helped raise him during his teenage years in Indiana.

The Lincoln family later moved from Indiana to Illinois. Abraham Lincoln eventually pursued legal studies and entered politics there, establishing the career that would lead to the presidency.

Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd when he was 33 years old. She subsequently became First Lady of the United States during his presidency.

Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd had four sons. The presenter identifies their eldest son, Robert Lincoln, as the only one who survived childhood.

Robert Lincoln became the sole surviving branch through which Abraham Lincoln's direct descendants could continue. The other three sons left no descendants, making Robert's children and grandchildren central to the later family history.

Robert Lincoln married Mary Harlan, whose father was James Harlan. James Harlan later served as United States Secretary of the Interior following Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Robert Lincoln followed his father into public service and held senior positions in the federal government. He served as United States Secretary of War under Presidents James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.

Robert Lincoln also served as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. His diplomatic appointment extended the family's involvement in national government into international affairs.

Robert and Mary Harlan Lincoln had three children, who became Abraham Lincoln's only grandchildren. All three were born after the president's assassination, meaning Abraham Lincoln never met any of his grandchildren.

The three grandchildren were Abraham Lincoln II, commonly called Jack, Mamie Lincoln, and Jessie Lincoln. Their lives determined whether the president's direct bloodline would continue into later generations.

Abraham Lincoln II, known as Jack, died at age 17. His premature death left his sisters Mamie and Jessie as the only grandchildren able to continue the family line.

Robert Lincoln narrowly escaped death in a railway accident shortly before his father's assassination. Approximately one or two years before Abraham Lincoln was killed, Robert slipped into the gap between a railway platform and a moving train.

Robert Lincoln was rescued from the railway accident by Edwin Booth. Edwin was an actor whose younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, subsequently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

The Booth brothers became connected to the Lincoln family through dramatically opposite events. Edwin Booth saved Robert Lincoln's life, while John Wilkes Booth killed Robert's father.

Robert Lincoln was associated with the circumstances surrounding three presidential assassinations. He was present during the aftermath of his father's assassination and was later near two other presidents when they were attacked.

Robert Lincoln witnessed President James Garfield being shot in 1881. Garfield was the second assassinated American president, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Robert Lincoln was also nearby when President William McKinley was shot in 1901. This placed him near the events surrounding the deaths of three American presidents across a period of 36 years.

Robert Lincoln was not alive during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The presenter notes that Kennedy's death was the only one of the four American presidential assassinations with which Robert had no personal proximity.

Only two of Abraham Lincoln's three grandchildren reached adulthood: Mamie and Jessie. Both were daughters of Robert Lincoln, and their descendants represented the remaining possibilities for continuation of the president's bloodline.

Mamie Lincoln married Charles Isham. The couple had one biological child, a son named Lincoln Isham.

Lincoln Isham married but had no biological children. He had several stepchildren, but none were blood descendants of Abraham Lincoln through him.

Jessie Lincoln married Warren Beckwith, a baseball player. Their marriage produced two children, Mary Beckwith and Robert Beckwith.

Mary Beckwith never married and had no children. The presenter identifies her as a lesbian and states that she died in 1975.

Mary Beckwith's death in 1975 left her brother Robert as the last living confirmed direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln. By that time, the other branches descending from Lincoln's grandchildren had ended without further biological descendants.

Robert Beckwith married three times but had no acknowledged biological children. Like Lincoln Isham, he had stepchildren who did not constitute direct biological descendants of the president.

Robert Beckwith died in 1985, apparently ending Abraham Lincoln's confirmed direct bloodline. His death is generally treated in the presenter's account as the extinction of the president's documented biological descendants.

An unresolved paternity dispute complicates the claim that Abraham Lincoln's bloodline ended in 1985. Robert Beckwith's second wife, Anne-Marie Hoffman, gave birth to a son named Timothy during the first year of their marriage.

Anne-Marie Hoffman maintained that Robert Beckwith was Timothy's biological father. Robert disputed that claim and did not acknowledge Timothy as his biological son.

Robert Beckwith had reportedly undergone a vasectomy many years before Timothy's birth. The presenter identifies this as the principal reason Robert rejected the claim that he was Timothy's father.

Despite denying biological paternity, Robert Beckwith helped raise Timothy. His involvement in Timothy's upbringing did not resolve the disagreement over their biological relationship.

A financial settlement followed Robert Beckwith's death. Timothy received $1 million in exchange for surrendering any future claims based on being Robert's son.

The $1 million settlement did not establish Timothy's biological parentage. It resolved potential claims without providing scientific proof that Timothy was, or was not, descended from Abraham Lincoln.

No DNA testing was performed to resolve the Timothy Beckwith paternity question. Consequently, the presenter acknowledges that Abraham Lincoln could have living biological descendants despite the accepted account that his direct line ended in 1985.

Abraham Lincoln is related to actor Tom Hanks through the Hanks family. The connection comes from Lincoln's maternal ancestry rather than from the descendants of Lincoln himself.

Tom Hanks's ancestry can be traced back seven generations to John Hanks Jr. John was the brother of Joseph Hanks, who was Abraham Lincoln's maternal great-grandfather through Nancy Hanks's family line as presented in the episode.

Tom Hanks and Abraham Lincoln are identified as third cousins four times removed. Their relationship comes from shared Hanks ancestors, although the two men were born several generations apart.

Camille Hanks Cosby, wife of comedian Bill Cosby, may have a connection to the same Hanks family. The presenter traces her ancestry to a man named Thomas Hanks.

Some genealogical sources identify Thomas Hanks as another brother of Joseph Hanks. If correct, this would establish a family connection between Camille Cosby and Abraham Lincoln through the wider Hanks ancestry.

The presenter could not verify the proposed Camille Cosby connection because the available genealogical sources were unreliable. He explicitly treats the relationship as unconfirmed rather than placing it alongside the more firmly established Tom Hanks connection.

The possibility of an interracial relationship during slavery is raised as one explanation for the disputed Hanks connection. The presenter speculates that a white slaveholding man might have fathered a child with an enslaved Black woman, a pattern that occurred in American history.

The presenter offers no specific evidence that slavery or sexual exploitation explains Camille Cosby's ancestry. He acknowledges that the proposed connection may have nothing to do with slavery and that he does not know how the family lines intersect, if they intersect at all.

The Camille Cosby relationship remains an open genealogical question. The presenter invites additional evidence from people familiar with her family history rather than claiming to have resolved the issue.

Actor George Clooney has a closer genealogical connection to Abraham Lincoln than Tom Hanks does. The relationship also comes through Lincoln's maternal family, specifically the descendants of Lucy Hanks.

Lucy Hanks married Henry Sparrow after the birth of Nancy Hanks. The couple subsequently had several children together, creating another branch of the family descended from Nancy's biological mother.

One of Lucy Hanks and Henry Sparrow's children was Mary Ann Sparrow. She was Nancy Hanks's maternal half-sister, sharing the same mother but having a different father.

Mary Ann Sparrow was George Clooney's great-great-great-grandmother. This makes Clooney a descendant of the same woman, Lucy Hanks, from whom Abraham Lincoln descended.

Abraham Lincoln and George Clooney are identified as first half cousins five times removed. Their ancestors Nancy Hanks and Mary Ann Sparrow were maternal half-sisters, while the five-generation difference accounts for the distant generational relationship.

The George Clooney connection depends on the identification of Lucy Hanks as Nancy Hanks's biological mother. The mitochondrial DNA evidence presented earlier therefore supports both the explanation of Lincoln's maternal ancestry and the proposed relationship to Clooney.

The Hollywood relationships demonstrate that the extinction of Lincoln's direct bloodline does not mean that his wider family has disappeared. Tom Hanks and George Clooney are related through shared ancestors rather than through descent from President Lincoln.

The presenter distinguishes direct descendants from collateral relatives throughout the family tree. Robert Beckwith's death concerns the survival of Lincoln's own descendants, whereas the Hanks, Sparrow, and other Lincoln family branches can continue independently.

The family tree also shows that political prominence existed in the Lincoln family before Abraham Lincoln became president. Levi Lincoln Sr., his sons, and their political careers demonstrate that the extended family had already developed influential connections within American government.

The president's immediate upbringing contrasted sharply with the political success of some distant Lincoln relatives. Although members of the extended family became governors, legislators, and federal officials, Abraham Lincoln grew up in poverty after his grandfather's death and his father's loss of inheritance.

Abraham Lincoln's ancestry brings together several major periods of American history. His family history extends from Puritan settlement in colonial Massachusetts through the American Revolution, Kentucky frontier expansion, slavery and abolition, the Civil War, and the development of the modern American presidency.

The episode illustrates how genetic evidence can help resolve longstanding genealogical disputes. The Nancy Hanks investigation combines historical family records, competing explanations of parentage, maternal-line descendants, and mitochondrial DNA to favor one interpretation over another.

The episode also demonstrates the limits of genealogical certainty. The presenter treats the identification of Nancy Hanks's mother as strongly supported, the Camille Cosby connection as speculative, and Timothy's alleged descent from Abraham Lincoln as unresolved.

The presenter identifies six presidents whose family trees the channel has examined: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. He indicates that additional presidential family trees remain potential subjects for future episodes.