Week 6: SURPRISE! #52Ancestors
This week’s prompt was to write about something surprising found in my family research. I’ve already covered a big one – that fact that my family name isn’t “Glacy” (see week 3). But I did find a surprising ancestor – on my husband’s side of the family. None other than our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln!
I know what you are thinking: “Sure you’re related to someone famous. Isn’t that the point of doing genealogy?” But really, “no.” I never thought I would find anyone famous and I am supremely skeptical of anyone who does. On one of my favorite T.V. programs, “Finding Your Roots,” they always seem to find that the celebrity guest is related to King Henry VIII. I shouldn’t be surprised because even though Henry VIII didn’t have any direct legitimate children, his SISTER likely has thousands of descendants! Nevertheless, I still smile whenever Dr. Gates whips out that huge family tree with old Henry at the top (Charlemagne is another favorite ancestor on that show). #smh
To be honest though, the number of ancestors and descendants is mind-blowing. Strictly looking at the math, you dear reader, have 4,096 10thGreat-Grandparents!1 [BTW, that’s why a genealogist is never “done.”] Of course, that does not take into account your shared ancestors. Given the number of cousins who married each other back in the day when that was more or less legal, you’ll likely find quite a few less than 4,000. But even still, it’s gonna be a BIG number!
So maybe I shouldn’t be so skeptical of people who say that they have famous people in their family tree. There is a guy I regularly run into on Ancestry who claims he is descended from King Henry VII. Maybe I should agree that this might be possible. But he also claims he is related to the Medici family from Florence, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Zachary Taylor, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, Tom Brady, and possibly Chief Powhatan from Pocahontas fame. You can see how my natural skepticism is fed.
Alright, back to Abraham Lincoln. As far as I have been able to determine, it looks as though Honest Abe is my husband’s 4th cousin 4xs removed. What that means that Abe’s 3rdGreat-Grandfather is Bruce’s 7th Great-Grandfather (through Abe’s mother Nancy Hanks).
You might note the lack of footnotes in the above-portion of this blog. Part of that has to do with the fact that William Hanks, the common grandfather shared by Abe and Bruce, was born maybe in Virginia sometime in the 1650’s and died possibly in 1704. The lack of original records from that time makes research into that family a challenge I have not yet accepted. Of course, now that I have mentioned this as a possibility, I’d better get cracking and prove it! One of my favorite genealogical mottos is “without proof there is no truth.” So, unless and until I can get you some honest to goodness “proof,” take my Abe story with a big grain of salt!
1 Dick Eastman, “How Many Ancestors Do You Have?,” Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, 26 January 2018 (https://blog.eogn.com/2018/01/26/how-many-ancestors-do-you-have/: accessed 11 February 2019).
Leopold Grozelier, “Hon, Abraham Lincoln” lithograph (Boston: J.H. Buford, 1860); digital image, Library of Congress (https://lccn.loc.gov/2006678305 : accessed 11 February 2019).
This little cutie’s birthday is tomorrow too!