Commemorating the 150th anniversary (1865 – 2015) of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the authors of an independent study announced the results of the Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtDNA Study on October 21, 2015.
Abraham Lincoln is a monumental figure in our nation’s history, yet his mother’s maternal ancestry has been debated for over a hundred years. Most historians agree that Nancy Hanks was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks who had a second illegitimate daughter, Sarah “Sally” Hanks, before marrying Henry Sparrow and giving birth to eight more children. So the question then becomes, “Who were the parents of Lucy Hanks (Sparrow)?”
While most have believed Lucy Hanks (Sparrow) was the daughter of Joseph Hanks and Ann “Nancy” Lee of Richmond Co., VA and Nelson Co., KY, others have claimed Lucy Hanks (Sparrow) was born Lucy Shipley who prior to her marriage to Henry Sparrow had been married to a James Hanks, a supposed son of Joseph and Ann Lee Hanks, making her their daughter-in-law instead of daughter. They have further claimed that she was one of five Shipley sisters, two of whom were Naomi Shipley (Mitchell) and Rachel Shipley (Berry). This study addresses this long standing controversy and seeks to provide an authoritative reference sample of Abraham Lincoln’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).
Nancy Hanks Lincoln has no living descendants so mtDNA samples were obtained from matrilineal descendants of two known daughters of Joseph Hanks and Ann “Nancy” Lee (Nancy Hanks Hall and Mary Hanks Friend), matrilineal descendants of two daughters of Sarah “Sally” Hanks (Sophia Hanks Lynch Legrand and Margaret Hanks Legrand), and matrilineal descendants of two daughters of Lucy Hanks from her marriage to Henry Sparrow (Margaret Sparrow Ingram and Lucinda Sparrow Richardson). This group shall be identified as Group-A. Full mitochondrial sequencing reveal Group-A belongs to a rare haplogroup X1c. In addition to the mutations used to define haplogroup X1c, they share a core set of {three} more specific mutations. These results indicate Group-A participants descend from the same maternal line. The rarity of the X1c haplogroup makes these matching samples more definitive.
MtDNA samples were also collected from matrilineal descendants of two Shipley sisters – Naomi Shipley who married Robert Mitchell and Rachel Shipley who married Richard Berry, Sr. This group shall be identified as Group-B. Matching HVR1 and HVR2 results for these two samples are Haplogroup H, indicating Group-B descendants do not descend from the same maternal line as Group-A.
In summary, these results can be used with confidence as a reference for DNA testing of Abraham Lincoln artifacts and for distinguishing between the two accounts of the parentage of Nancy Hanks. By including participants from multiple lines of descent from Ann Lee Hanks, the results conclude that Lucy Hanks Sparrow was not a sister of Rachel Shipley and Naomi Shipley and the results provide evidence supporting the conclusion that Lucy Hanks was a daughter of Ann Lee Hanks. All matrilineal lineages were researched by the study authors.
DNA testing conducted at Gene by Gene, Ltd’s Genomics Research Center in Houston, TX.
Acknowledgements: Ann Turner, M.D., DNA analysis; Bennett Greenspan, Pres. FTDNA, laboratory assistance; Pat McDaniel, Sparrow family consultation
For more information, please contact Suzanne Hallstrom, administrator: [email protected]
Brief Background
Lincoln’s law partner of seventeen years, William Herndon, claimed that Lincoln had told him that Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was illegitimate, meaning that her mother was a Hanks by birth. This account was followed by virtually all Lincoln biographers until 1900.
In the 1920s, Lincoln biographer William Barton concluded that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the daughter of Lucy Hanks Sparrow, born before Lucy Hanks married Henry Sparrow. He further maintained that Lucy Hanks was the daughter of Joseph Hanks and Ann “Nanny” Lee of Richmond Co., VA and Nelson Co., KY. Lucy was therefore, according to Barton, a sister to two other daughters of Joseph and Ann Lee Hanks — Nancy Hanks who married Levi Hall and Mary Hanks who married Jesse Friend.
Barton’s view was opposed by Louis Warren, who agreed that Lucy Hanks Sparrow was Nancy Hanks’s mother, but contended that Lucy Hanks Sparrow was not a Hanks by birth. Instead, he claimed she was one of several sisters named Shipley. One of these sisters was Naomi Shipley, who married Robert Mitchell, and one was Rachel Shipley, who married Richard Berry Sr. Warren contended that Lucy had been married to a James Hanks, whom Warren claimed had been a son of Joseph and Ann Lee Hanks, before she married Henry Sparrow.
In 1998, Paul Verduin provided a genealogy of the Hanks family for the book Herndon’s Informants, edited by Lincoln historians Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis. In this genealogy, Verduin agreed with Herndon and Barton that Lucy Hanks Sparrow, the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a daughter of Joseph and Ann Lee Hanks, and that Nancy was therefore illegitimate. He also concluded that Lucy Hanks had a second illegitimate daughter, Sarah “Sally” Hanks, before marrying Henry Sparrow. Lucy then had eight more children with Henry Sparrow, four girls and four boys. Verduin also concluded that Sarah “Sally” Hanks had six illegitimate children of her own, including Sophia Hanks Lynch Legrand and Margaret Hanks Legrand.
Barton and Verduin agreed that Lucy and Henry Sparrow had four daughters; Mary, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Lucinda. Record evidence exists showing that Mary Sparrow married Benjamin Whitehouse, Elizabeth Sparrow married Claiborne Franklin, Margaret Sparrow married William Ingram, and Lucinda Sparrow married Sandy Richardson.
NOTE: You can read more about the various theories on the ancestry of Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks on Rich Hall’s FamousKin.com website: https://famouskin.com/articles/lincoln_hanks_debate.php
NOTE: Lincoln scholar Richard G. Hileman gave a presentation of the historical detail of the Nancy Hanks Lincoln mtDNA Study in October 2016 at the Conference on Illinois History at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield. The presentation was given again in October 2017 at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN. The video of Rich’s second presentation, “The Search for Nancy Hanks” can be viewed at https://archive.org/details/4260270
© 2015 All Rights Reserved, Suzanne W. Hallstrom, Nancy C. Royce, Stephan A. Whitlock, Richard G. Hileman, M.A., J.D., Gerald M. Haslam, Ph.D, AG, FUGA