Abraham Lincoln's Jewish Ancestors from Lincoln, England Our 16th American president had Jewish roots, as was found by Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University. She wrote an extensive research paper who studied this topic and found beyond any reasonable doubt, that Abe Lincoln was Jewish. She checked out his ancestry and went back to his hometown where she did years of work on this topic.
For starters, February 12, 1809 was the birthdate of Abe Lincoln. His mother, illiterate from Virginia, was Nancy Hanks married to Thomas Lincoln, whose family came from the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia. Abe really was born in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek near what is now, Hodgenville, Kentucky.
He was the only American president that didn't say he was a member of any particular religious faith. He wasn't raised in a church and never belonged to a church. His grandfather was said by the researcher to be Mordechai Lincoln and his name was Abraham, two very Jewish biblical names used by Jews. I believe he could have been a great-grandfather as his grandfather Lincoln was listed as Abraham.
Abe's ancestors probably came from Lincoln, England which has a Jewish history. The Normans came with William I in 1066, though were probably there also in Roman times. They had built Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Castle. In 1159 a Jewish community was created in Lincoln which later became 5 important Jewish communities. During the crusader riots, the sheriff of Lincoln saved the Jews by giving them official protection. St. Hugh, the great bishop of Lincoln, taught love of Jews to his parishioners. The Jews of Lincoln mourned when he died. Rabbi Joseph of Lincoln, a scholar, was mentioned in the Talmud. Aaron of Lincoln was a finanacier whose operations extended all over the country.
There was the Jew's House which lies below the Jew's Court. Anti-Semitic hysteria by 1255 caused Lincoln's Jews to be accused of ritual murder, causing 91 to be sent to London for trial which ended with 18 executed. In 1290 the Jews of Lincoln were expelled by edict. It's possible that some remained and were like the secret Jews of Spain who were expulsed in 1492. They could have been practicing Judaism in secret and passed it on in each generation, following Abe Lincoln to Kentucky.
In researching "Lincoln" on ancestry.com , I found the first Lincoln immigrants to be several Thomases and a Stephen Lincoln born in the 1600's. One was a husbandman and the other a miller.
Jews reacted to Lincoln's death in 1865 by sitting shivah and rabbis all over the USA eulogized President Lincoln. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, creater of Reform Judaism, started the eulogy with "Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence."
When asked about his theology, he quoted from the book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow, the Ten Commandments.
Though he may have been part of the Jewish community of Lincoln, England, Judaism follows from the inheritance of a Jewish mother. He has roots, but would not be called "Jewish." He would have had to go through a conversion to be Jewish. Perhaps those Jewish genes were part of his philosophy of life, though.
What I know: (Added more ancestors to on 1/14/13)
1. Mordecai Lincoln b: June 14, 1657 Hingham, Plymouth, Mass.; spouse: Sarah Jones. Great-great grandfather
2 Mordecai Lincoln b: April 24, 1686 Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts d: December 1736 Amity, Berks, Pennsylvania . Spouse: Hannah Salter. I did find born 1750 in Massachusetts with son Isaac born October 18, 1749, Sarah, Jane, Nanne, Pegge, George and Lucene Lincoln, all in Massachusetts:
3. John Lincoln b: May 3, 1716, sp: Rebecca Flowers
4. Captain Abraham Lincoln b: May 13, 1744 in Berks PA, d: May 1786 Jefferson, Kentucky, GRANDFATHER
married Bathsheba Herring (1746-1836) of Virginia GRANDMOTHER
5. son was Thomas Lincoln b: January 20, 1780 FATHER d: 1851 Farmington, Illinois
married Nancy Hanks June 12, 1806 ( February 5, 1784-October 5, 1818) 1806 MOTHER (Parents were James Hanks and Lucy Shipley)
4. Abraham Lincoln b:February 12, 1809 d: April 15, 1865
married Mary Todd November 4, 1842 (well educated woman from Kentucky)
5. Robert Todd Lincoln b: August 1, 1843 d: July 26, 1926, Lawyer, Secretary of War
married Mary Eunice Harlan
6 Abraham Lincoln II August 14, 1873 d: March 5, 1890
5. Edward "Eddie" Baker Lincoln b: March 10, 1846 died February 1, 1850 of TB.
5. William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln b: December 21, 1850 d: February 20, 1862 of Typhoid Fever
5. Thomas "Tad" Lincoln b: April 4, 1853 d: July 15, 1871 of TB.
They had 4 children. Robert was the only one to survive to adulthood.
Abe had an older sister, Sarah, and a younger brother, Thomas. His mother, Nancy, died at age 34 when he was 9 years old. His father remarried Sarah Bush Johnston who had 3 children she brought to the marriage. The family had moved from Kentucky over a land dispute to Indiana. He didn't care for his father as he had no ambition. Neither parents could read or write.
Robert became Harvard educated and married Mary Eunice Harlan. They had 2 daughters and a son, 6th generation Abraham Lincoln II whom they called Jack. He was born August 14, 1873 and died March 5, 1890 at age 17 from blood poisoning and unmarried. Thus ended the Lincoln line. It's too bad there weren't any descendants to do dna testing. It would have been interesting to see what Y haplogroup our former president would have had.
"Lincoln's son Robert later denied the admission of Hebrew ancestry. He told IsaacMarkens, author, that he had "never before heard that his father supposed he had any Jewish ancestry." Markens dismissed the exchange between Lincoln and the rabbi as a "pleasantry."
"Pleasantry or not, the rumor seems to reflect historical truth. "The Lincoln material in my book traces his family's arrival from England into the New Hingham Colony in Massachusetts and their migration down to the Appalachian area," Elizabeth Hirschman told the curator of the Lincoln Collection, James M. Cornelius, who contacted her in September. "I use genealogies, marriage practices, wills and cemetery inscriptions to build the case for his Jewish--and likely Sephardic--ancestry." She had written that the Lincolns were part of the Melungeons from his mother, Nancy Hanks.
Update: 2/15/13 After watching a National Geographic program on searching for the DNA of Abe Lincoln, I found that DNA has been taken from a descendant of Samuel Lincoln (1620-1690) who is thought to be the ancestor, and it tested as R1b1 Y haplogroup., the most common of Europe, or could even be R1b1c1, originating in Central Asia or South Central Siberia. Abe is buried deep underground in a tomb and so the scientists are searching for something with his blood, but must be careful that it is a verified object. So far they have not found anything appropriate. Some believe he had marphan, and others think he had another condition that would show up on DNA. He went downhill within 13 months and may have had a form of cancer, or it was caused just by the strain and stress of the Civil War.
Update: 6/15/14 After researching more than three centuries of Abraham Lincoln’s family tree, Ancestry.com family historians have revealed a Lincoln family secret: famous actor George Clooney is related to the former president. The family bloodline for both notable figures links to Lincoln’s maternal grandmother Lucy Hanks. Due to this common ancestor, Clooney is Lincoln’s half-first cousin five times removed. Those interested in the Lincoln-Clooney connection can find a family connection chart at Ancestry.com.http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2012/11/07/george-clooneys- honest-family-connection/? o_xid=56491&o_lid=56491&o_sch=Content+Marketing
Resource; gerardrobins@sbcglobal.net from Rabbi Jeff Kahn, Temple Har Shalom and Professor Elizabeth Hirschman, Rutgers University
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,_England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew%27s_House
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England
http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540?page=1, 2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php? az=view_all&address=433x615838
http://dnaconsultants.com/_blog/DNA_Consultants_Blog/post/Abraham_Lincoln's_Je wish_Roots/
http://www.melungeons.com/articles/mar2005.htm
Update: 2/15/13 http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2007/11/01/dna-analysis-of- 5-people-who-helped-create-america/
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Poster Comment:
Yeah, some dispute it, but there are 100 indicators if there's 1!