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Position:Home>Genealogy> Abraham lincolin's ethnicity?Question: Abraham lincolin's ethnicity?what was lincolin's ethnicity/race? Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Abraham Lincoln was mostly English on his father's side. Lincoln is an English name. The original Lincoln American colonist, Samuel Lincoln, arrived in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1637, having departed from a town in England of that same name. Abraham Lincoln also appears to have been mostly English on his mother's side. His mother was Nancy Hanks. Nancy was an illegitimate daughter of Lucy Shipley, who married James Hanks after Nancy was born, and Nancy took James' surname as her own. Lucy had been an impoverished seamstress who wandered around taking sewing jobs. Nobody is really sure who Nancy Hanks' father was. Abraham Lincoln was not Jewish. It was quite common among English Christian parents to name their children after characters in the Bible, which tradition is also customary among Jews. Here's Abe's family tree insofar as I can see it. Abraham Lincoln (16th US President) F - Thomas Lincoln FF - Abraham Lincoln (a prior) FFF - John Lincoln FFFF - Mordecai Lincoln FFFFF - Samuel Lincoln FFFFFF - Edward Lincoln FFFFFM - Bridget Gilman FFFFM - Sarah Jones FFFM - Hanna Salter FFM - Rebecca Flowers FFMF - Enoch Flowers FFMM - Rebecca Barnard FFMMF - Richard Barnard FFMMM - Francis Lambe FFMMMF - Richard Lambe FFMMMM - Lucy Baillie FM - Bathsheba Herring FMF - Alexander Herring FMM - Abigail Harrison M - Nancy Hanks MF - James Hanks (?) MFF - Joseph Hanks (?) MFM - (unknown) MM - Lucy Shipley MMF - Robert Shipley JR. MMFF - Robert Shipley SR. MMFM - Elizabeth Stevens MMM - Sarah Dorsey Gilman is English (via German). Jones can be English or Welsh. Salter can be English or German. Flowers is English. Barnard can be English or French. Lambe can be English or Irish. Baillie is Scottish. Herring can be English, Dutch, German or Scottish. Harrison is English. Hanks can be English, Scottish, Irish, or German. Shipley is English. Stevens is English. Dorsey is English (via Norman). All known lines of ancestry for Abraham Lincoln trace back to central or northern Europe, the UK, and Ireland. The only question about his racial composition comes from the uncertain paternity of Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks. Because of that uncertainty, some people are going around trying to claim one thing or another, perhaps for political reasons. |